Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Add new tag, Brain, Cognition, cognitive development, Development, evolution, Genetics, Human behavior, Intelligence, Mutation, Population genetics, Psychology, Twin, University of Edinburgh on January 12, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Just a pointer to onetime University of Edinburgh Professor C.H. Waddington’s 1972 Gifford Lecture on framing the genes vs. environment debate of human behavior. Although Waddington is famous for his work on population genetics and evolutionary change over time, several of his concepts are experiencing some resurgence in the neuroimaging and psychological development literatures these [...]
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Biology, Cognition, Development, DSM, Emotion, fear, Genetics, Mental disorder, Mental health, panic disorder, parental loss, separation anxiety disorder, Stress, Twin on January 11, 2010 | 1 Comment »
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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 and [...]
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged aging, Development, DNA, DNA methylation, Epigenetics, Gene, Gene expression, Genetic testing, histone, histone acetylation, Transcription factor, Twin on January 5, 2010 | 1 Comment »
Last year I dug a bit into the area of epigenetics (indexed here) and learned that the methylation (CH3) and acetylation (OCCH3) of genomic DNA & histones, respectively, can have dramatic effects on the structure of DNA and its accessibility to transcription factors – and hence – gene expression. Many of the papers I covered [...]
Posted in Angular gyrus, Middle frontal gyrus, Supramarginal gyrus, tagged Brain, Cognition, Frontal lobe, Functional magnetic resonance imaging, Magnetic resonance imaging, Prefrontal cortex, Psychology, Sigmund Freud, Twin on October 13, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
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Whether you are a carpenter, plumber, mechanic, electrician, surgeon or chef, your livelihood depends on a set of sturdy, reliable, well-honed, precision tools. Similarly, neuroscientists depend on their electrodes, brain scanners, microscopes and more recently their genome sequencers. This is because they are not just trying to dissect the brain – [...]
Posted in Basal Ganglia, Cingulate cortex, Striatum, Superior temporal cortex, tagged Biomedical Informatics research Network, Brain, Genetics, Magnetic resonance imaging, Twin on October 7, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
The brain is a wonderfully weird and strange organ to behold. Its twists and folds, magnificent, in and of themselves, are even moreso when we contemplate that the very emotional experience of such beauty is carried out within the very folds. Now consider the possibility of integrating these beauteous structure/function relationships with human history – [...]
Posted in 5HTT, MAOA, tagged Mental disorder, schizophrenia, Twin on September 6, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
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pointer to: download Power Point presentation hosted on the HUGO website entitled, “From the human genome to human behaviour: how far have we travelled?” (both English and Russian text) – by Ian Craig and Nick Yankovsky, Education Council Human Genome Organisation.
Covers recent findings on MAOA and 5HTT several and others [...]
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Anxiety, Development, Genetic testing, Mental disorder, Twin on April 13, 2009 | 1 Comment »
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As the personal genomics era dawns, it becomes clear that the new genetic information will lead to more new questions than answers. Consider a well-intentioned parent who finds any number of suspicious risk factors in the genome of their child. Perhaps a genetic risk variant for mental illness – an anxiety [...]
Posted in Visual cortex, tagged Development, evolution, Twin on March 31, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
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Is the human brain a blank slate? or a pre-programmed machine that is ready to take the S.A.T.s right out of the box? Obviously neither, or both as it were. Some have gingerly waded into the nature vs. nuture debate and suggested that the human brain comes pre-wired to receive certain [...]
Posted in Amygdala, DLPFC, Frontal cortex, tagged Emotion, Frontal lobe, Functional magnetic resonance imaging, Mental disorder, schizophrenia, Twin on March 13, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
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One of the difficulties in understanding mental illness is that so many aspects of mental life can go awry – and its a challenge to understand what abnormalities are directly linked to causes and what abnormalities might be consequences or later ripples in a chain reaction of neural breakdown. Ideally, one [...]
Posted in White matter, tagged Development, Intelligence, Twin on February 24, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
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Have you ever had your butt kicked by a 12-year old girl? OK, maybe when you were an 8-year old boy perhaps – but I mean as a grown up. Its a humbling experience. I know. For once back in college, I sat for a math contest and was amazed by a young [...]
Posted in Frontal cortex, Middle temporal gyrus, Supramarginal gyrus, tagged Development, Frontal lobe, Twin on April 28, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Image via Wikipedia Like most parents, I enjoy watching my children develop and marvel at the many similarities they bear to myself and my wife. The reshuffling of physical and behavioral features is always a topic of discussion and is the definitive icebreaker during uncomfortable silences with the inlaws. In some cases, the [...]
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Telepathy, Twin on February 1, 2008 | 1 Comment »
Image via Wikipedia Mind reading, telepathy, clairvoyance, precognition ? Not possible you say ? Or perhaps misunderstood ? You may once have had a premonition or a feeling and later been surprised to find that it coincided with an actual event. Once, for example, when I was 15, my pal and I absconded [...]
Posted in Visual cortex, tagged Functional magnetic resonance imaging, Twin on January 14, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Image via Wikipedia Twin studies are oft used to gauge the role of the genome in behavioral science. A recent report, “Nature versus Nurture in Ventral Visual Cortex: A Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study of Twins” by Polk et al., (DOI) shows that brain activity during early stages of visual processing is more [...]
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Development, Mental disorder, schizophrenia, Twin on December 11, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
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It has long been known that complex neuropsychiatric and neurodevelopmental illnesses have familial patterns of inheritance and that concordance in identical twins is greater than in fraternal twins. The genetic influences of mental illness – whilst apparent – do not, however, provide clues about which genes, of the 20,000 or [...]
