Long Memories and Obsessive Behaviours FKBP

Reducing the activity of a gene called FKBP12 in the brains of mice affected neuron-to-neuron communication (synapse) and increased both fearful memory and obsessive behavior, indicating the gene could provide a target for drugs to treat diseases such as autism spectrum disorder, obsessive-compulsive disease and others, said researchers from Baylor College of Medicine in Houston _SD

We are what our brains make us, but our brains are what our genes + environment makes us. People with lower expression of FKBP 12 protein may have longer memories, but at the expense of more fear, anxiety, and compulsion. At least, Baylor University studies in mice suggest such an effect of genetic biodiversity in rodents.

The protein FKBP12 regulates several important cell signaling pathways, and decreasing its activity enhances long-term potentiation in the hippocampus, said Dr. Susan Hamilton, chair of molecular physiology and biophysics at BCM and a senior author of the report. (Long-term potentiation means the enhancement of the synapse or communication between neurons.)

It accomplishes this by fine-tuning a particular pathway called mTOR signaling (mammalian target of rapamycin). The mice in whose brains the activity of the gene was reduced had longer memories and were more likely to exhibit repetitive behaviors than normal mice. _SD

The effect of FKBP12 protein may be mediated at least in part via mitochondrial efficiency.

Gene expression exerts a powerful affect on humans and other animals from the very earliest stages of development. Scientists at Hebrew University-Hadassah have elaborated the effect of gene G9a on specialisation of early pluripotent cells into differentiated cell types. More on basic action of G9a in gene expression.

It is futile to attempt to completely separate the impact of an organisms environment from gene expression. But it is just as futile to attempt to separate gene expression from an organism's (and human's) behaviour. Ideological adherents of the "Blank Slate" hypothesis are being forced into a very tight logical corner. And because such Blank Slatists control large areas of government, universities, and the media across North America and Europe, expect some extremely erratic and dysfunctional behaviour from them as their cause falls into greater disrepute.

Males 3 X More Likely to be Highly Talented at Math Than Are Females, Although Most Promising Talent is Destroyed by US Schools

A new study in Notices of American Mathematical Society (PDF), reveals that a large number of potentially highly talented in mathematical individuals are diverted from mathematics by the US school systems, their talents largely wasted. While the article takes the politically correct stance that females are being particularly victimised, a careful reading reveals that the majority of children who are highly talented at math (by roughly 3:1) are males. If one looks further at the extreme upper end of the curve of mathematical ability, the ration of males to females is closer to 10:1. The farther out on the math ability curve one cares to look, the greater is the advantage of males over females.

Huge amounts of money are spent every year in expensive outreaches to female students, to encourage females to pursue careers in mathematics, science, and engineering/computer science. Nothing even remotely similar in magnitude is devoted to the vastly larger numbers of boy students whose talents in math and science are being squandered by a dysfunctional government school system.

Very few USA high schools teach the advanced mathematical skills, such as writing rigorous essay-style proofs, needed to excel in the USAMO. Most USAMO award winners acquire this knowledge by a combination of self -study and participation in summer mathematics camps. ...Several summer mathematics camps aimed at exposing children to numerous areas of pre - calculus mathematics not typically taught in schools have been started in the USA during the past decade. AwesomeMath is one such program, begun in 2006 for seventh through twelfth-graders who can demonstrate a high-level interest in learning areas of mathematics needed to perform well in the AIME and USAMO. It is run by the same instructors who direct the MOSP and coach the USA IMO Team. Of the ninety-three USA students who participated in the camp in 2006, fourteen (15%) were girls.

...Girls and boys with mathematical ability, whether profound, gifted, or merely above average, should be identified and encouraged to study mathematics beyond the high school level so they may pursue careers in STEM fields because these jobs are plentiful, well-paying, challenging, interesting, and beneficial to society. Their doing so is vital to the future of the USA economy... _NAMS(PDF)

Of course the authors of the study commit two errors of PC--denying differences in math aptitude due to gender, and ignoring differences in math aptitude due to underlying ethnic populations. If one believes in the discredited "blank slate hypothesis", then one is subjected to this type of error famously committed by ideologically bound academics such as Liz Spelke, Nancy Hopkins, and Donna Shalala.

Even so, it is good to have the data collected and analysed, so that in a future and more open-minded age, it can be looked at more impartially. PC bias reduces the IQ of research, academics, and public policy in a similar way that CAGW bias reduces the FQ of industry and the economy. Society must muddle through until it can throw off the ideological chains of PC, and other leftist hysterias.

"Number Sense": As Common as Common Sense?

A simple test administered to children via computer graphic may be a better predictor of his subsequent performance in mathematics than his SAT. The Johns Hopkins University researchers who devised the test believe that most mammals also have an inherent "number sense" that allows them to estimate relative numbers in groups. It is a matter of degree, for humans, as to whose number sense will allow them to excel in mathematics.

Good "number sense" at age 14 correlates with higher scores on standardized math tests throughout a child's life up to that point and weaker "number sense" at 14 predicts lower scores on those standardized tests, said Justin Halberda, assistant professor of psychological and brain sciences in the university's Krieger School of Arts and Sciences.

"We discovered that a child's ability to quickly estimate how many things are in a group significantly correlates with that child's performance in school math for every single year, reaching all the way back to when he or she was in kindergarten..."

..."What this seems to mean is that the very basic number sense that we humans share with animals is related to the formal mathematics that we learn in school," Halberda concludes. "The number sense we share with the animals and the formal math we learn in school may interact and inform each other throughout our lives."
_SD

The researchers ad the obligatory PC disclaimer that "nothing in this research suggests that math ability is innate or genetic." As if at this stage in understanding of human biodiversity there is still anyone with an IQ above 100 who still believes in "The Blank Slate" hypothesis.

What is obvious is that it is possible to devise fairly simple tests to distinguish between children with higher and lower aptitudes at various cognitive skills. The fact that these tests have high predictive power for the future of the respective children, is something that should not be ignored, covered up, or euphemised.

Neural Rhythms, Moral Minds

My two favourite mind/brain blogs are Developing Intelligence and Neurophilosophy. Chris Chatham has another fascinating post on the theme of neural oscillations--Alpha Oscillations and Consciousness.

More recent work provides a detailed view of how alpha-band oscillations may contribute to cognition. Palva & Palva review evidence that large amplitude alpha oscillations may actually perform a different function than lower-amplitude oscillations in the same frequency band. In a visual search task, for example, alpha-band oscillations are dampened in active visual cortex and enhanced in inactive regions of visual cortex, but both small and large alpha band activity prior to the onset of the visual stimulus was correlated with better subsequent performance! One could conclude that these alpha-band oscillations reflect preparation for the task by generally "calming the waters" in cortex (either through alpha phase locking or alpha amplitude suppression) so that activity due to the upcoming visual stimulus can be readily detected

...Palva & Palva previously found cross-frequency phase coupling in every frequency band from delta to gamma, and that this coupling was stronger during mental calculation as well as high working memory load - in particular, the strength of alpha-gamma coupling. The authors argue that a variety of behaviors are synchronized at alpha rhythms, including human serial recognition/categorization speed, the timing of illusory motion reversals in the wagon wheel illusion, discrimination of odors by rats, and phasic muscular activity (including "alpha tremor").

Source

MC presents a recent study from Antonio Damasio and Marc Hauser (author of Moral Minds) about the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPC) and its likely role in moral judgment:

In the current study, the intelligence and logical reasoning of the six patients with VMPC damage was unaffected, and they all had full knowledge of social norms. However, they all displayed impaired autonomic responses to emotionally-charged images, and, in line with the previous findings, had a significantly diminished sense of empathy, embarrassment and guilt.

Thus, the findings confirm the notion that there are at least two neural systems involved in making moral decisions: one in which emotions are involved, and one which performs a cost-benefit analysis. The former appears to be disrupted in the six patients with VMPC cortex, while the latter is intact. It is believed that the emotion-based system for making moral decisions evolved first, perhaps in a situation where small numbers of people lived in kin groups. Damasio says, “A nice way to think about it is that we have this emotional system built in, and over the years culture has worked on it to make it even better”.

Source

Here is a link to a podcast interview with Marc Hauser from Neurophilosophy discussing his recent book Moral Minds You may observe in the podcast interview that the blank slate hypothesis dies very hard in an Idiocracy, but if for no reason other than general apathy, its days are numbered.

The two above articles help to clarify important research findings for important areas of brain and consciousness research. Both neuroblogs above keep close track of neuroscience research, and are well worth following on a regular basis.

Behaviour Genes: Designer Living

Welcome to a newcomer on my blogroll under Neurosciences, MindBlog. A few days ago, Deric commented on various genes that seem to influence behaviour. Anyone familiar with the twin studies by Bouchard and others should not be surprised by these influential little genes. The names of some of the genes are quite humorous, suggesting that some scientists do indeed have a sense of humour.

INSIG2 - Obesity - A common gene variant that is associated with significantly increased risk of becoming fat among the more than 25 million Americans who carry it. Herbert et al. (2006) "A Common Genetic Variant Associated with Adult and Childhood Obesity". Science 312:279-283.

neuroD2 - Risk-taking - Mice lacking neuroD2 have a greatly reduced sense of fear. Variants of the human version of this gene may lead to risk-taking behaviors. Lin et al. "The dosage of neuroD2 transcription factor regulates amygdala development and emotional learning" Proceedings of the National Academy of Science 41:14877-14882

CYP2A6 - Nicotine Addiction - People with certain forms of this gene smoke more and are more likely to become addicted to cigarettes. Tailoring treatments based on which form of CYP2A6 a person has may help him or her quit. Minematsu et al. (2006) "Limitation of cigarette consumption by CYP2A6*4, *7 and *9 polymorphisms" European Respiratory Journal 27:289-292. Malaiyandi et al. (2006) "Impact of CYP2A6 genotype on pretreatment smoking behavioral and nicotine levels and usage of nicotine replacement therapy". Molecular Psychiatry (2006): 400–409.

AVPR1a and SLC6A4 - Dance talent - Variants of these genes are correlated with creative dance performance. Bachner-Melman et al. "AVPR1a and SLC6A4 Gene Polymorphisms Are Associated with Creative Dance Performance". PLoS Genetics 1(3): e42

DRD2 - Anorexia - Variants of this receptor for the neurotransmitter dopamine have been preliminarily linked to the risk of developing anorexia. Bergen et al. (2005) "Association of Multiple DRD2 Polymorphisms with Anorexia Nervosa" Neuropsychopharmacology 30, 1703-1710.

DRD4 - Sexual desire - Another dopamine receptor gene that is linked in this study with sexual desire and performance. Zion et al. (2006) "Polymorphisms in the dopamine D4 receptor gene (DRD4) contribute to individual differences in human sexual behavior: desire, arousal and sexual function". Molecular Psychiatry (published online ahead of print)

fruitless - Sexual orientation - Male and female fruit flies make different forms of this gene. Males carrying the female gene do not court females. Females carrying the male gene are attracted to other females. Demir and Dickson (2005). "fruitless Splicing Specifies Male Courtship Behavior in Drosophila" Cell 121:785-794.

Go to Deric's article for more information, and links to the original research.

There is always the proviso that single genes do not typically act alone, and a great deal of gene-gene interaction takes place. Even so, it is fascinating to observe the thickening plot in the genetic--environment dance. Blank Slate advocates are finding their support crumbling under their feet.

Blank Slate: Special Report on Re-invention

Forbes.com has compiled a special online report dealing with the re-invention of everything. From re-inventing life itself, to re-inventing re-invention, several topics are covered.

Here are links to some of the articles on re-inventing:

• The University
• Intelligence
• Reality
• Pharmaceuticals
• You
• Prison

And there are other articles dealing with things such as crisis creativity and more.

It is nice to see mainstream journals reporting on futuristic topics. Forbes has a bias toward corporate development of ideas, but the underlying issues of creativity, design, and reinvention are the same regardless of the ultimate use.