Behavioral genetics I recap:

Prenatal environment – stress hormones can have an effect of the fetus after birth

Mitochondria coming from the mother

Genetic input is not equal – regularity control coming from the mother

By way of the transcription factor

Sperm has less input and control over the fertilization

Inheritance of an acquired trait- Lamarckian

Behavioral Genetics II:

Difference in external metafiction difference in Phenotype

Intermediate physiological end points - Proteins functions variations

Proteins different sizes- electrical charge of the protein

Primitive initial versions:

Find gene for diseases

Such as PKU

Genetic marker

Stretch of DNA that contained the gene of the diseases

Bioethics issues involving gene marker tests

Micro erase- get all the copies of RNA that could be made from a cell- transcribe all the genes and glue a
little chip to each RNA then use probes to allow you to see 20 thousand of those genes and the various
between different individuals

Vasopressin hormone has to do with social affiliation

A study of the vasopressin hormone found out that if you have a different version of the promoter

As a human male are likely to have a more stable relationship than you have the other version of it

Subtle Differences in facial expressions

Where autism runs majorly in the family people are seeing mutations related to the vasopressin
receptors

BDNF plays a role in causing individual rats when they are highly stressed to make the neurons in the
amygdala grow new connections new processes

= Training the rat to be hyper responsive to scary things

(the amygdala part of the brain that has to do with anxiety and fear etc..)

There are functional differences to BDNF gene

It relates your likely hood of getting high anxiety disorders levels of stress hormones in your blood
stream metabolic activity in your amygdala

Dopamine – pleasure, anticipation and reward seeking behaviors

Map on to levels of risk taking behavior levels of sensation seeking levels of novelty craving

NPY protein to do with levels of anxiety of stress

Difference in the promoters

Chance has a huge role in cells and molecules dividing or splitting (random) variations of genetics

Hereditability – to do with environment and the variability is not only determined by genes

Experiment on plant IQ

One done in the Amazon and the other is done in the Gobi desert by a different scientist

A B C A B C
 AMAZON GOBI DESERT

Plant A , B and C had different variabilities due to different environments and different gene

The gene in each plant had a different function is a different environment

In the amazon the IQ of plant C was higher than the IQ of plant c in the Gobi Desert

C gets you the best plant IQ in the amazon and the worst plant IQ is the Gobi Desert

Ear wearing has more to do with heritability than environment while having five fingers has
more to do with environment then genes

What does this gene do in this kind of environment?

It depends on the environment

High cognitive activity in science literature has been related to gender if you are male or female
a genetic trait

With studies in math performance (John Hopkins study)

Males performing better than female students

Gender difference on average that boys are better at maths than girls

But then a new study was done of 480 thousand high school students around the world in 40
different countries

And asked a question of rather there are big differences in gender of quality of life issues in this
country

And the gender equality index takes into account if there is in educational opportunities in
freedom of movement in freedom to serve in an elected office in freedom to voted in freedom
to choose your marriage the variability around the world

The greater the gender treatment in a society across those 40 different countries the bigger the
difference there was in math scores

Its not a function of gender its which society your growing up with your gender
The countries with the worst profile of the 40 countries in terms of the biggest gender
differences in the quality of life measures: Turkey, Tunisia and South Korea

The countries with the lowest degree of different treatment of there people in their society
based on gender: Scandinavians,

And there is still a gender difference in Iceland girls are slightly better in math than boys

So, it has nothing to do with your Y chromosome

It has more to do with the environment

On the average girls being better at verbal performance than boys

And what you see is in the worst countries by these measures

Women get better verbal scores than men and as you go to the more equal places the gender
difference increases

The more gender equal a society is the less of a sex difference in math capabilities and the
bigger the advantages for females over males in verbal performance

Its got everything to do with what society you’re in

The gender differences in the realm of cognitive skills means next to nothing

Environment is subtler than we think and starts earlier than we think

Recognizing Relatives:
Epigenetics regulation of chromatin remodeling and methylation of genes