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Posts Tagged ‘sex’

Genome, why U date jerks like it’s a full-time job?

Posted in DRD4, tagged , , , on November 9, 2012| Leave a Comment »

A stable relationship with a nice loyal guy AND a secret wild fling with a swarthy promiscuous guy?  Admit it … you’ve probably been there, done that.

From: Associations between Dopamine D4 Receptor Gene Variation with Both Infidelity and Sexual Promiscuity

“Worldwide median rates of non-paternity, or the rate of men raising children under the pretense of biological parentage, have been suggested to near 9%, or 10% more popularly.”

If the 3rd exon in your dopamine D4 receptor (DRD4) gene carries 7-repeats of a 48-nucleotide sequence (48bp VNTR), then you may be slightly more like Snookie and her booze-addled kooka than you wish to admit.

“The dopaminergic reward pathway influences physiological arousal, pleasure, and intrinsic reward. Humans that possess at least one allele 7-repeats or longer (7R+) display behavioral phenotypes associated with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), alcoholism, financial risk-taking, disinhibition and impulsivity, and sexual behavior.”

But don’t blame it all on your genes.  Your environment can modulate your genetic proclivities.

“In r-selected environments (i.e., unpredictable and unstable environments, where the ability to mate more and produce more offspring is favored), 7R+ genotype would be expected to rise in frequency. That is, in environments where “cad” behavior is adaptive, selective pressure for 7R+ would be positive; but in environments where “dad” behavior is adaptive, selective pressure for 7R+ would be negative. This is consistent with the dramatic differences in DRD4 VNTR allele frequencies and behavioral patterns found globally such as in the generally polygamous and agonistic Yanomamö Indians of South America (high 7R+ frequencies) and the generally egalitarian !Kung of the Kalahari (low 7R+ frequencies).”

I’m a DRD4 double fist pumping 7R/7R … so, like, I guess … that explains a lot of the skeletons in my closet.

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DRD4 and gene-twitter interactions that go badly

Posted in DRD4, Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on June 17, 2011| Leave a Comment »

Political power must feel pretty good … especially if you have deep-seated personal insecurities and can conveniently use the notoriety of your office to indulge in a sense of superiority and vanity.  Among many, many brain systems that develop slowly during childhood – inflated ego, interpersonal hostility and impulsivity can emerge very early during development.  Instantaneous electronic “boner-to-picture-to-internet” hand-held technology just makes it that much easier to get busted once you’ve become a full-grown asshole.

Here’s a small insight into how this unfortunate developmental pathway might unfold … from a small-scale genetic study on variation in an intra-cytoplasmic loop of the Dopamine DRD4 receptor and its relationship to infidelity:

[DRD4] 7R+ individuals exhibit augmented anticipatory desire response to stimuli signaling dopaminergic incentives, such as food, alcohol, tobacco, gambling, and opiates. Although it is as yet speculative, these associations suggest that 7R+ individuals may allocate greater attention to appetitive rewards, contributing to the behavioral differences in promiscuity and infidelity observed here.

Neither the first, nor the last gene-twitter interaction to have gone badly for someone …

More on the DRD4 and social bonding genes

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What are you wired to do?

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on December 30, 2010| Leave a Comment »

The Jerk
Image via Wikipedia

If you’ve ever watched Steve Martin’s movie “The Jerk“, you may chuckle at the notion of having a “special purpose”.

Nevertheless, you may have wondered about your own special purpose … what are YOU meant to do?  What are some things that give meaning to YOUR life – you know – social connections (having friends and family)?, a sense of purpose (changing the world)?  a sense of self-control (earning a good wage, being healthy and having a modest home)?  satisfaction that comes from a sense of mastery (playing piano sonatas, perfecting yoga poses)?

Yes, yes, yes and yes … according to this research … these are avenues well worth exploring … keep going!!

Ask your genome, however, and it will surely give you a different answer.  By genome, I mean the long chemical strings of A, G, T, C’s that encode the machinery that constitute YOU – your brain and body.  It may have a different agenda.

The biochemical problem for the genome is that it is so damn unstable.  The long string of A, G, T, C’s has an unfortunate chemical tendency to want to break, slip, loop, slide and in so many other ways come unhinged.  We call this process mutation – and for the most part – its something that f**ks up the lives of perfectly good organisms.  Damn genome instability!

What’s a genome to do?  Apparently, one solution to this problem of mutation and the unfortunate load of mutations that can accumulate within an organism or population of organisms, is to exchange one’s DNA with other similar (but non-mutated) stretches of DNA.  Just ‘cut’ out one stretch and ‘paste’ in another, just like you might ‘cut and paste’ a revised paragraph into an essay you are writing.  No problemo!  Now all those deleterious mutations can no longer continue to pile up in the genome, since they can be cut out, and then new bits of DNA pasted in.  This process is known as genetic recombination.  In humans this process takes place in the reproductive system … its hypothesized to be the reason that sex evolved in the first place.

Yes, the genome loves genetic recombination (which necessitates having male and females who want to, um, get together) to lower the load of deleterious mutations.  What a selfish genome we have (although I’m not complaining)!

OK, so happiness research tells us that we need to have friends, self-direction, purpose, mastery etc …  and the genome tells us we need to have (ahem) sex.  So who’s right?

Check out this article  “Money, Sex and Happiness: An Empirical Study” (referencing “Measuring the Quality of Experience”, Princeton University, 2003).

… among a sample of 1000 employed women, that sex is rated retrospectively as the activity that produces the single largest amount of happiness. Commuting to and from work produces the lowest levels of happiness. These two activities come top and bottom, respectively, of a list of 19 activities.

Hmmm.  Are we a whole lot less sophisticated that we want to admit?  Perhaps.  Its not a simple answer, but interesting to think that amidst all the effort we make to attain health, close relationships, security, inner-peace, etc … at the end of the day … we just want to have sex.

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