(corrected) Neuro-movie review: Wordplay and brain hemispheres

Monday, February 25th, 2008

In honor of the Oscars®, here is a neuro-movie review about a movie that came out in 2006 — Wordplay (here’s the link to the official site, and the link to the Rotten Tomatoes site). (Yes, it was out in 2006, so I’m a year late. ) This post will ultimately be about hemispheric [...]

“A unified genetic theory for sporadic and inherited autism”

Thursday, February 21st, 2008

“Transposable Elements” by Swivelchair, all rights (if any) totally waived. This work was inspired by the work of Dr. Barbara McClintock.

Here’s today’s research paper:Zhao, X., Leotta, A., Kustanovich, V., Lajonchere, C., Geschwind, D.H., Law, K., Law, P., Qiu, S., Lord, C., Sebat, J., Ye, K., Wigler, M. (2007). A unified genetic theory for sporadic and [...]

Moderate fetal alcohol x genetics = trouble

Thursday, January 17th, 2008

Kraemer et al., “Moderate Level Fetal Alcohol Exposure and Serotonin Transporter Gene Promoter Polymorphism Affect Neonatal Temperament and Limbic-Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal Axis Regulation in Monkeys,” Biol Psychiatry63: 317-324 (2008).

This is another nature x nurture study. We know that in people, if you are mistreated in childhood, and you have a particular gene which causes your [...]

Abuse x genes = “pronounced psychopathological manifestations”

Saturday, October 13th, 2007

Nature, nurture, nature, nurture.
Nature x nurture is really the thing. If you are genetically loaded, and your mother drank while pregnant with you, or had genital herpes while pregnant with you, or if you were abused after you were born, your behavior will be more extreme than if you just had the genes or [...]