Re: Behavioral Genetics: A pseudo science or real scientific discipline

Ethical restrictions prevent us from performing invasive experiments on
humans, but tests on mice, bees, fruit flies and other "lower animals,"
reveal a strong link between genes and behavior. Most recently,
scientists created a mouse lacking an important gene... and it
exhibited fearless behavior. The gene responsible for a bee's social
behavior (whether it becomes a drone or forager) has been identified
(as shown by altering it and observing the resulting behavior). Genes
(I think several were involved here) in the prairie vole have been
identified, and changes made so that an individual either exhibited
monogamous or polyganous behavior. Fruit flies have been genetically
altered so their mating behavior is changed. The list is longer than
this, and is increased almost daily. (A search in Nature and Science
magazines will find these studies.)

Clearly, there is room for genetic determinism in some behavior, but
studies in epigenetics also show that even they can probably be
modified by environmental influences. So, most behavior is undoubtedly
a combination of genetic recipe and environment, but you first must
have a genetically prescribed behavioral framework before the
environement can "work its influence."


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Relevant Pages

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