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Posts Tagged ‘Stress’

A depression gene that you can’t turn off

Posted in Hippocampus, MAPK, MKP-1, tagged , , , , , , , , , on November 10, 2010 | 2 Comments »

Image via Wikipedia You already know this, but when you are stressed out (chronic stress), your brain doesn’t work very well.  That’s right – just when you need it most – your brain has a way of letting you down! Here are a few things that happen to the very cells (in the hippocampus) that [...]

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Intronic risk – where Mother Nature meets Mother Nurture

Posted in Intronic or repetitive sequences, tagged , , on July 19, 2010 | Leave a Comment »

Image via Wikipedia The current buzz about about GWAS  and longevity and GWAS in general has stirred up many longstanding inconvenient issues that arise when trying to interpret the results of very large, expensive and worthwhile genetic studies.  Its seems that Mother Nature does not give up her secrets without a fight. One of the [...]

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First ever replication of a GxE in psychiatric genetics

Posted in CRHR1, Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on April 6, 2010 | Leave a Comment »

Image via Wikipedia According to the authors of  “Protective effect of CRHR1 gene variants on the development of adult depression following childhood maltreatment: replication and extension“  [PMID: 19736354], theirs is “the first instance of Genes x Environment research that stress has been ascertained by more than 1 study using the same instrument“.  The gene they [...]

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Genetic road signs for super-size coffee SUV drivers

Posted in ADORA2A, DRD2, Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on March 4, 2010 | Leave a Comment »

If you’re a coffee drinker, you may have noticed the new super-sized portions available at Starbucks.  On this note, it may be worth noting that caffeine is a potent psychoactive substance of which – too much – can turn your buzz into a full-blown panic disorder.  The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for psychiatry outlines a [...]

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Suffocation and the developmental continuity between childhood separation and panic disorder

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , on January 11, 2010 | 1 Comment »

Image by Corrie… via Flickr Coping with fear and anxiety is difficult.  At times when one’s life, livelihood or loved one’s are threatened, we naturally hightenen our senses and allocate our emotional and physical resources for conflict.  At times, when all is well, and resources, relationships and relaxation time are plentiful, we should unwind and [...]

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Epigenetics and cognitive development – quick sketch overview

Posted in BDNF, MECP2, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on December 16, 2009 | 2 Comments »

Some quick sketches that might help put the fast-growing epigenetics and cognitive development literature into context.  Visit the University of Utah’s Epigenetics training site for more background! The genome is just the A,G,T,C bases that encode proteins and other mRNA molecules.  The “epi”genome are various modification to the DNA – such as methylation (at C [...]

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Epigenetic loss of an insensitive period of cognitive development

Posted in Hippocampus, Hypothalamus, NRXB1, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on December 4, 2009 | Leave a Comment »

We are all familiar with the notion that genes are NOT destiny and that the development of an individual’s mind and body occur in a manner that is sensitive to the environment (e.g. children who eat lots of healthy food grow bigger and stronger than those who have little or no access to food).  In [...]

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Interview with Dr. Christina Barr

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , on October 6, 2009 | Leave a Comment »

Image via Wikipedia Many thanks to Dr. Christina S. Barr from the National Institutes of Health/National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism-Laboratory of Clinical and Translational Studies, National Institutes of Health Animal Center for taking the time to comment on her team’s recent publication, “Functional CRH variation increases stress-induced alcohol consumption in primates” [doi:10.1073/pnas.0902863106] which [...]

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rs6265 moderates my hippocampus’ response to stress

Posted in BDNF, tagged , , , , , , , on September 17, 2009 | 1 Comment »

Image by digitalART2 via Flickr In Robert Sapolsky’s book, “Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers“, he details a biological feedback system wherein psychological stress leads to the release of glucocorticoids that have beneficial effects in the near-term but negative effects (e.g. ulcers, depression, etc.) in the long-term.  The key to getting the near-term benefits and avoiding [...]

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Mother Nature’s cruel love wrought in CRH promoter SNPs

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , on September 11, 2009 | Leave a Comment »

Image by kodomut via Flickr For humans, there are few sights more heart-wrenching than an orphaned child (or any orphaned vertebrate for that matter).  Isolated, cold, unprotected, vulnerable – what could the cold, hard calculus of natural selection – “red in tooth and claw” – possibly have to offer these poor, vulnerable unfortunates? So I [...]

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Squirrel monkeys’ (gene-by-) experience writ large in prefrontal cortex

Posted in Frontal cortex, GABA, tagged , , , on September 7, 2007 | Leave a Comment »

Image via Wikipedia Behavioral geneticists are fond of noting that more than half of the risk for mental illness is heritable, and, fonder of the number of specific risk factors that have been identified. What is much less well known however is how these heritable factors interact with the environment to potentiate risk. Psychiatrists, on [...]

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