Genes 2 Brains 2 Mind 2 Me

Image via Wikipedia From time to time, it just seems hopeless to adhere to a reductionist strategy in the area of psychiatry and psychology. How, indeed, can our infinitely complex mind be understood in terms of tiny chemical bits ? Just when you’re ready to give up and bid adieu to Descartes and his mechanisms, along comes a reinvigorating paper like Professor Morgan Sheng’s, “Synaptic Accumulation of PSD-95 and Synaptic Function Regulated by Phosphorylation of Serine-295 of PSD-95” (DOI). This paper demonstrates that the the addition and removal of a single – that’s right, a single – phosphate group to Serine 295 of the PSD-95 protein is sufficient to activate or inhibit the recruitment of synaptic proteins such as AMPA receptors and potentiate excitatory post-synaptic current. Given that many complex mental illnesses are associated with synaptic deterioration, there seems to be great therapeutic significance to this finding. [Neuron, Vol 56, 488-502, 08 November 2007]