Are Introverts' Brains Wired To Make Them Shy Forever?

mcb

The Living Force
http://www.sott.net/articles/show/161878-Introverts-Brains-Are-Wired-To-Make-Them-Shy-Forever

This reminds me of a segment in the PBS Nova program Ghost In Your Genes (_http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/genes/). Evidence was offered that, in rats, susceptibility to anxiety could become "wired," after early life neglect, through changes in the epigenome.

Nova said:
...MOSHE SZYF: So the conclusion from that is, it's not the genes that the mother brings into the game. It is the behavior of the mother that has an impact on the offspring years after the mother is already gone. And the basic question was, "How does the rat remember what kind of care it received from its mother, so that it now has better or worse health conditions?"

And we reasoned that there must be some mark in genes that marks that memory.

NARRATOR: But could such a mark, capturing memory, be found? The researchers focused on a gene which lowers the levels of stress hormones in the blood. It's active in a part of the rat's brain called the hippocampus. By extracting and analyzing the gene, they could compare how its activity varied between low- and high-licked rats.

The difference was striking. Less nurtured rats had multiple epigenetic marks silencing the gene.

The result? With the gene less active, stress levels in neglected rats soared. In stark contrast, nurtured rats could better handle stress because they had nothing dimming the genes' activity.

MOSHE SZYF: The maternal behavior essentially sculpted the genome of their babies. We looked at one gene; we know hundreds of genes were changed. But for me, it was a fantastic thing that just a behavior of one subject can change the gene expression in a different subject.

NARRATOR: The most surprising phase of the experiment, however, was yet to come. Szyf and Meaney injected anxious rats with a drug known to remove epigenetic marks.

MOSHE SZYF: And as we injected the drug, the gene turned on. And when it turned on, the entire behavior of the rat changed. It became less anxious. Also, it responded to stress like a normally-reared rat. And we looked at the way that gene was marked in the brain, and we saw that we actually changed the epigenetic marking of that gene...

[From _http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/transcripts/3413_genes.html]
What is missing in the present article (on SOTT) is information about the history of the test subjects and whether the tendency to anxiety and shyness was or might have been induced. Continuing on in the Nova transcript:

Nova said:
...NARRATOR: Although the work has yet to be replicated, it appears that Szyf and Meaney have linked personality traits, albeit in a rat, to the epigenome.

Could this have implications for humans? We will not know until the completion of a 10-year study, now underway, that will look at children from both nurturing and neglected backgrounds.

But even now, says Meaney, we have clues that our own upbringings produce the same effects.

MICHAEL MEANEY: If you grow up in a family that involves abuse, neglect, harsh and inconsistent discipline, then you are statistically more likely to develop depression, anxiety, drug abuse...
There is more (the transcript goes on to talk about conditions like diabetes, heart disease and obesity), but I was pointing out the possible connection with the other work involving shyness and anxiety being "wired." The epigenome seems to be very well suited as a "wiring panel." (See the above PBS links for more information.)
 
Introverts' Brains Are Wired To Make Them Shy Forever

Hmmm... that raises all kinds of questions about popular child rearing methods and how an entire society could be "turned". And what about circumcision? Wonder if that has any effect on epigenetic factors?

Most interesting.
 
Introverts' Brains Are Wired To Make Them Shy Forever

Hmm…I wonder if it is indeed 'forever' as articles says, or maybe the heat produced by Working on oneself with an aim to 'rewire the circuits' may actually affect those epigenetic marks and turn the gene back on. Isn't it what alchemical transformation is all about?
 
Introverts' Brains Are Wired To Make Them Shy Forever

I disagree with correlating the term "introvert" automatically with "shy." Just because one has an introverted personality type does not mean that one is also shy. Introverted personality types have a very rich and active interior mental/emotional life (as do many extroverts), but need a lot more quiet contemplative time, and often tend to prefer their interior life to active socializing--this does not automatically make them shy/fearful or anxious around others.
To say that "introvert individuals brains are wired in such a way that tends to keep them tense and anxious forever." is an inaccurate generalization in my opinion. Perhaps what the research suggests is that shy fearful types may be hardwired to stay that way. I am wary about using absolutes like "always" and "forever."
shellycheval
 
Introverts' Brains Are Wired To Make Them Shy Forever

shellycheval said:
I disagree with correlating the term "introvert" automatically with "shy." Just because one has an introverted personality type does not mean that one is also shy. Introverted personality types have a very rich and active interior mental/emotional life (as do many extroverts), but need a lot more quiet contemplative time, and often tend to prefer their interior life to active socializing--this does not automatically make them shy/fearful or anxious around others.
To say that "introvert individuals brains are wired in such a way that tends to keep them tense and anxious forever." is an inaccurate generalization in my opinion. Perhaps what the research suggests is that shy fearful types may be hardwired to stay that way. I am wary about using absolutes like "always" and "forever."
shellycheval
I completely agree. For myself, "Introversion" is simply my nature. The extreme shyness I experienced when I was younger was a Program involving a lot of self-doubt and self-absorption, one that I was able to change with conscious, disciplined effort. I eventually learned the type of "social skills" that were necessary to my profession, to the point that someone who knew me only within that context would have characterized me as a very outgoing "Extrovert". However, for me such behaviour has never been "natural", in that it is always something that I have to consciously "turn on" when required, and I have always remained an "Introvert" in nature.
 
Introverts' Brains Are Wired To Make Them Shy Forever

Keit said:
Hmm…I wonder if it is indeed 'forever' as articles says, or maybe the heat produced by Working on oneself with an aim to 'rewire the circuits' may actually affect those epigenetic marks and turn the gene back on. Isn't it what alchemical transformation is all about?
I was thinking along that line too. The research raises many questions. Working with rats or even monkeys, it wouldn't be possible to experiment with "higher centers," but why assume that epigenetic programming that resulted from abuse experiences couldn't be altered or removed by other experiences?

When I first saw the Nova program, I felt discouraged. It offered a possible explanation for some of the problems I have had personally (I am prone to anxiety, and I had already connected this with early experiences), but it seemed to suggest that now I was "wired" that way for life. Really, though, the research demonstrates that there is a genetic mechanism that is more malleable (from the Latin for "hammer") than the DNA code itself, responding to "shocks" in the form of abuse experiences, and that can influence feelings and perceptions. That the researchers would not think of using a "hammer" to change it is not surprising, but it is indeed interesting to find that this feature is part of our machine.

With regard to correlating "introvert" and "shy," I think that they are connected but not the same by any means. I am an introvert but, given the opportunity, I enjoy doing things with other people as much as being alone. I do well in either world--doing things alone or with other people--for long periods of time. I spend a lot of time in solitary activities, however, and am still exploring how and why I create the "lack of opportunity."

To me, shyness and anxiety are things I need to examine--they are limiting. Introversion is not.
 
Introverts' Brains Are Wired To Make Them Shy Forever

I, too, am an introvert, but not the least bit shy. Shy people irritate me because they are so concerned about what other people with think of them that they never think about the fact that other people may have the same concerns but manage to overcome them. And then, if they encounter a "shy" person, their efforts are in vain and they end up feeling rejected and bruised too.
 
Introverts' Brains Are Wired To Make Them Shy Forever

Here is another version of the article published in SOTT, one that clearly identifies the study and its authors: _http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/07/080701221437.htm

The word "introvert" does not appear in the study, which is entitled Trait-Like Brain Activity during Adolescence Predicts Anxious Temperament in Primates

The study can be found here: _http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0002570

It was concerned with "anxious temperament," a condition that is though to occur naturally in some monkeys and humans. The study connects this condition with amygdala activity, and aims to show that it tends to persist for life.

This is a different idea from that of anxiety that results from early abuse, although both tend to persist for life. When I searched to see if the two might be related, I didn't find very much. (I tried find more information about the study before I posted yesterday, but the PLoS One web server was "down for maintenance.")

Here is an interesting article about epigenetics and memory: _http://www.healthaffairs.uci.edu/biochem/resources/wood/Sweatt%20review%202007.pdf. One statement that stood out for me was
Epigenetics is unfamiliar to most neurobiologists.
I was really expecting to find more connections between different areas of research (e.g. anxiety, dissociation, amygdala function) and epigenetics than I did. Perhaps this is one of the reasons. But this article is an exception.

This comment appears in a sidebar in the article:
Historically,mothers have not been prone to underestimate their lasting impact on their children’s behaviour.A recent finding should strengthen their conviction even further136.
Mouse mothers that show strong nurturing behaviour towards their pups, for example, by frequently licking and grooming their offspring, produce lasting alterations in the patterns of DNA methylation in the CNS of their pups,which apparently persist throughout adulthood136. There is evidence that these changes in DNA structure result in decreased anxiety and a strong maternal nurturing instinct in the adult offspring.

Although a detailed review of this landmark study is beyond the scope of this article, this paper is pertinent to the present discussion for several reasons. First, the study indicates that alterations in DNA methylation affect behaviour in the adult. Second, the persistence of neonatally acquired patterns of DNA methylation in the mature CNS is consistent with the hypothesis that epigenetic mechanisms contribute to lasting cellular effects — that is, cellular memory in the CNS. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, the study indicates a specific epigenetic mechanism in the CNS for perpetuating an acquired behavioural characteristic across generations — a particularly robust example of behavioural memory that is potentially subserved by epigenetics.
In other words, epigenetic "memory" can potentially be passed on to future generations, a point also touched upon in the Nova program.
 
Introverts' Brains Are Wired To Make Them Shy Forever

shellycheval said:
I disagree with correlating the term "introvert" automatically with "shy." Just because one has an introverted personality type does not mean that one is also shy. Introverted personality types have a very rich and active interior mental/emotional life (as do many extroverts), but need a lot more quiet contemplative time, and often tend to prefer their interior life to active socializing--this does not automatically make them shy/fearful or anxious around others.
To say that "introvert individuals brains are wired in such a way that tends to keep them tense and anxious forever." is an inaccurate generalization in my opinion. Perhaps what the research suggests is that shy fearful types may be hardwired to stay that way. I am wary about using absolutes like "always" and "forever."
shellycheval
Some good points here. First of all, looks like they were testing introversion (which is innate and temparamental, after all) and NOT one's plasticity, i.e. capacity for inner psychic transformation. Second, the way they phrase it is pretty typical of modern psychology. It's like saying, "Intelligent people's brains are wired in such a way that tends to keep them forever questioning and refusing to adapt to societal norms!" Oh horror!
 
Introverts' Brains Are Wired To Make Them Shy Forever

Again, the word "introvert" does not appear anywhere in the study, in any variation, nor does it appear in the Science Daily article. The "oneindia" article quoted by SOTT used it. The study concerned "anxious temperament." The study is online at _http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0002570.

They sought to "understand the neural underpinnings of anxious temperament," which they describe in some detail in the abstract. The word "forever" also does not appear in the study. They retested 24 animals after 1 1/2 years--that is the longest interval that I saw mentioned. The conclusion in question (there were several):
These data demonstrate that a composite assessment of stress-related behavioral and physiological measurements reflecting anxious temperament is stable over development in non-human primates.
The study says 1 1/2 years and "over development," Science Daily says "long lasting," and "oneindia" says "forever." Editors usually don't do scientific research, so sometimes their creative contribution consists of making things up.

The other source that I mentioned, the PBS Nova program "Ghost In Your Genes," does not talk about "anxious temperament," which is inborn, but it does talk about anxiety and other symptoms persisting for life in response to early abuse. The mechanism discussed there is the epigenome, which can be defined in several ways. See _http://www.healthaffairs.uci.edu/biochem/resources/wood/Sweatt%20review%202007.pdf for lots of information about this. Surprisingly, there is evidence that epigenomic markers can sometimes be passed to future generations, so that certain experiences may be "remembered" in certain ways by offspring.
 
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