Genes Brain Function And Behavior

Genes, Brain Function, and Behavior offers a concise description of the nervous system that processes sensory input and initiates motor movements. It reviews how behaviors are defined and measured, and how experts decide when a behavior is perturbed and in need of treatment. Behavioral disorders that are clearly related to a defect in a specific gene are reviewed, and the challenges of understanding complex traits such as intelligence, autism and schizophrenia that involve numerous genes and environmental factors are explored. New methods of altering genes offer hope for treating or even preventing difficulties that arise in our genes. This book explains what genes are, what they do in the nervous system, and how this impacts both brain function and behavior. Presents essential background, facts, and terminology about genes, brain function, and behavior Builds clear explanations on this solid foundation while minimizing technical jargon Explores in depth several single-gene and chromosomal neurological disorders Derives lessons from these clear examples and highlights key lessons in boxes Examines the intricacies of complex traits that involve multiple genetic and environmental factors by applying lessons from simpler disorders Explains diagnosis and definition Includes a companion website with Powerpoint slides and images for each chapter for instructors and links to resources

Molecular-Genetic and Statistical Techniques for Behavioral and Neural Research presents the most exciting molecular and recombinant DNA techniques used in the analysis of brain function and behavior, a critical piece of the puzzle for clinicians, scientists, course instructors and advanced undergraduate and graduate students. Chapters examine neuroinformatics, genetic and neurobehavioral databases and data mining, also providing an analysis of natural genetic variation and principles and applications of forward (mutagenesis) and reverse genetics (gene targeting). In addition, the book discusses gene expression and its role in brain function and behavior, along with ethical issues in the use of animals in genetics testing. Written and edited by leading international experts, this book provides a clear presentation of the frontiers of basic research as well as translationally relevant techniques that are used by neurobehavioral geneticists. Focuses on new techniques, including electrocorticography, functional mapping, stereo EEG, motor evoked potentials, optical coherence tomography, magnetoencephalography, laser evoked potentials, transmagnetic stimulation, and motor evoked potentials Presents the most exciting molecular and recombinant DNA techniques used in the analysis of brain function and behavior Written and edited by leading international experts

How does the genome, interacting with the multi-faceted environment, translate into the development by which the human brain achieves its astonishing, adaptive array of cognitive and behavioral capacities? Why and how does this process sometimes lead to neurodevelopmental disorders with a major, lifelong personal and social impact? This volume of Progress in Brain Research links findings on the structural development of the human brain, the expression of genes in behavioral and cognitive phenotypes, environmental effects on brain development, and developmental processes in perception, action, attention, cognitive control, social cognition, and language, in an attempt to answer these questions. Leading authors review the state-of-the-art in their field of investigation and provide their views and perspectives for future research Chapters are extensively referenced to provide readers with a comprehensive list of resources on the topics covered All chapters include comprehensive background information and are written in a clear form that is also accessible to the non-specialist

Along with psychopathology, cognition has been one of the primary phenotypic focal points of the field of behavior genetics since its inception. Francis Galton’s 1874 examination of eminent families in Britain was among the earliest attempts to investigate whether cognitive achievements run in families. This volume presents current methodologies for understanding cognitive abilities that move beyond the outdated nature vs. nurture paradigm. Recent advances in both collection and statistical modeling of twin data, particularly longitudinal twin data, make this an especially advantageous moment to produce a work that presents a collection of the groundbreaking research on cognitive abilities across the lifespan. This volume presents an overview of the current state of quantitative and molecular genetic investigations into the many facets of cognitive performance and functioning across the lifespan.​

How Genes Influence Behavior takes a personal and lively approach to the study of behavioral genetics, providing an up-to-date and accessible introduction to a variety of approaches and their application to a wide range of disorders, and modeling a critical approach to both methods andresults.This second edition includes additional biology content to help students understand the biological foundations of the field, while maintaining an appropriate focus on the main issues of relevance to psychology students; updates coverage of genomic technologies and their applications; and covers awider range of disorders, including autism spectrum disorder, eating disorders, and intellectual disability. A new final chapter guides students through a range of quantitative approaches using worked examples that relate directly to cases and examples used earlier in the text, and addresses currentissues arising from debates around reproducibility.The online resources that accompany this book include:For students* Multiple choice questions for students to check their threshold knowledge* Data sets for students to manipulate, so that they can apply what they have learnedFor lecturers* Figures and tables from the book, ready to download

How we raise young children is one of today's most highly personalized and sharply politicized issues, in part because each of us can claim some level of "expertise." The debate has intensified as discoveries about our development-in the womb and in the first months and years-have reached the popular media. How can we use our burgeoning knowledge to assure the well-being of all young children, for their own sake as well as for the sake of our nation? Drawing from new findings, this book presents important conclusions about nature-versus-nurture, the impact of being born into a working family, the effect of politics on programs for children, the costs and benefits of intervention, and other issues. The committee issues a series of challenges to decision makers regarding the quality of child care, issues of racial and ethnic diversity, the integration of children's cognitive and emotional development, and more. Authoritative yet accessible, From Neurons to Neighborhoods presents the evidence about "brain wiring" and how kids learn to speak, think, and regulate their behavior. It examines the effect of the climate-family, child care, community-within which the child grows.

The last 20 years have yielded an explosion of information from the still nascent field of social neuroscience. Studies devoted to identifying neural correlates of social cognitive and moral judgment processing have established subcortical and cortical regions that are integral for how we filter and interpret information pertinent to family and friends, our social in-group, and strangers and engage in everything from forming immediate impressions of them to judging their behavior with respect to complex moral norms. What is less clear is how neural regions involved in implicit and explicit cognitive processing, or those cognitive processes that occur almost instantaneously as opposed to those that are more controlled respectively, interact to bias perceptions and behavior. Even less is known about how genes (and their variants) critical for neural function and the structural integrity within neural regions may modulate neural interactions critical for social cognitive and moral judgment processing. Recent methodological advancements assessing how different neural regions functionally work together with others, and how different genetic variants integral for neural function alter behavior, are establishing a more comprehensive view of the implicit and explicit social brain. These advancements demonstrate that structures critical for implicit processing, e.g., the amygdala, reliably covary in their activity with structures integral for explicit processing, e.g., dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, early and often during the processing of social information of varying complexity and in different contexts. This suggests that interactions between these regions are necessary to successfully navigate and immediately adapt to one’s environment. In turn, genetic variants like those that comprise the brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) gene, oxytocin receptor gene, or serotonin transporter gene likely play an important role in modulating the interaction between and within neural regions integral for interpersonal trust, intergroup processes, person perception, theory of mind (i.e., inferring the thoughts and feelings of others), and moral judgment processing. The purpose of this Research Topic is to further our understanding of how subcortical and cortical neural regions that vary in their functional contributions to social behavior also depend upon genetic influences in shaping individuals’ perceptions, beliefs, attitudes, behaviors, and how information is attended to and encoded to influence future social behaviors. It is particularly important to demonstrate how these regions reliably interact as a function of processing speed (i.e., implicit or explicit) and/or context to predict behavior or performance. Demonstrating how different genetic factors in turn moderate this interaction, or how genetic factors alter a specific region’s interaction with other regions, is equally important. We therefore solicit original empirical work, review and opinion papers, and methodological papers that can promote our understanding of how interactions between neural regions underlying implicit and explicit processes influence social cognitive and moral judgment processing and are, in turn, modulated by genetic predispositions. This includes work that utilizes fMRI, EEG and psychophysiological methodologies, lesion samples, as well as developmental and computational approaches. This Research Topic could serve as an important step in the evolution of our understanding of the complexity of the social mind as well as illuminate the robust effects context has on the way the brain interacts with different stimuli at every level of cognitive processing.