Epigenetics is:
"Along with the genetic circuitry in the DNA of our brain cells, we also have an additional layer of molecules that can switch genes on and off. A lot of this so-called epigenome gets locked into place when our brains are first developing, but it still remains malleable throughout our lives. Our environment can rework our epigenome, and some studies suggest that this reworking may produce long-term changes in personality."
Now epigenetics is telling us why love is very essential part of in every stage of our lives. Science has joined the litany of love which was always part of philosophy, religion, psychology et al. Carl Zimmer as usual has a great piece on this:
"The hippocampus is probably not the only place where experiences rewrite epigenetic marks in the brain. An international group of researchers recently compared the brains of 44 people who had committed suicide with those of 33 people who died of natural causes. The scientists looked at a gene that produces the protein BDNF, which promotes hormone receptors, in a part of the brain called the Wernicke area. That area, located behind the left ear in most people, helps us interpret the meanings of words. In March the researchers reported that the BDNF switch had more methyl groups attached to it in the Wernicke area of suicide victims than in other people.
And the influence of environment doesn’t end with childhood. Recent work indicates that adult experiences can also rearrange epigenetic marks in the brain and thereby change our behavior. Depression, for example, may be in many ways an epigenetic disease. Several groups of scientists have mimicked human depression in mice by pitting the animals against each other. If a mouse loses a series of fights against dominant rivals, its personality shifts. It shies away from contact with other mice and moves around less. When the mice are given access to a machine that lets them administer cocaine to themselves, the defeated mice take more of it.
"Even after birth the epigenetic marks in the brain can change. Over the past decade, Michael Meaney, a neurobiologist at McGill University, and his colleagues have been producing one of the most detailed studies of how experience can reprogram the brain’s genes. They are discovering the molecular basis for the tale of the two rats.
The differences between rats that got licked a lot and those that got licked only a little do not emerge from differences in their genes. Meaney found that out in an experiment involving newborn rat pups. He took pups whose mothers who didn’t lick much and placed them with foster mothers who licked a lot, and vice versa. The pups’ experience with their foster mothers—not the genes they inherited from their biological mothers—determined their personality as adults."
"Along with the genetic circuitry in the DNA of our brain cells, we also have an additional layer of molecules that can switch genes on and off. A lot of this so-called epigenome gets locked into place when our brains are first developing, but it still remains malleable throughout our lives. Our environment can rework our epigenome, and some studies suggest that this reworking may produce long-term changes in personality."
Now epigenetics is telling us why love is very essential part of in every stage of our lives. Science has joined the litany of love which was always part of philosophy, religion, psychology et al. Carl Zimmer as usual has a great piece on this:
"The hippocampus is probably not the only place where experiences rewrite epigenetic marks in the brain. An international group of researchers recently compared the brains of 44 people who had committed suicide with those of 33 people who died of natural causes. The scientists looked at a gene that produces the protein BDNF, which promotes hormone receptors, in a part of the brain called the Wernicke area. That area, located behind the left ear in most people, helps us interpret the meanings of words. In March the researchers reported that the BDNF switch had more methyl groups attached to it in the Wernicke area of suicide victims than in other people.
And the influence of environment doesn’t end with childhood. Recent work indicates that adult experiences can also rearrange epigenetic marks in the brain and thereby change our behavior. Depression, for example, may be in many ways an epigenetic disease. Several groups of scientists have mimicked human depression in mice by pitting the animals against each other. If a mouse loses a series of fights against dominant rivals, its personality shifts. It shies away from contact with other mice and moves around less. When the mice are given access to a machine that lets them administer cocaine to themselves, the defeated mice take more of it.
"Even after birth the epigenetic marks in the brain can change. Over the past decade, Michael Meaney, a neurobiologist at McGill University, and his colleagues have been producing one of the most detailed studies of how experience can reprogram the brain’s genes. They are discovering the molecular basis for the tale of the two rats.
The differences between rats that got licked a lot and those that got licked only a little do not emerge from differences in their genes. Meaney found that out in an experiment involving newborn rat pups. He took pups whose mothers who didn’t lick much and placed them with foster mothers who licked a lot, and vice versa. The pups’ experience with their foster mothers—not the genes they inherited from their biological mothers—determined their personality as adults."
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