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.
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.
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:...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]
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.)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...