Behavior and personal identity
Researchers are finding more and more connections between genetic structures and specific human behaviors, including aspects once considered part of the very core of human personality.
In 1993, researchers (Brunner et al.) linked the production of monoamine oxidase, an enzyme that metabolizes several key neurotransmitters to genetic anomaly resulting in lower intelligence, impulsive, aggressive, and criminal behaviors.
A single base mutation was located on the X-chromosome and traits were exhibited by the male members of the family while none of the women exhibited these traits.
The lack of pairing in XY chromosomes in male permits the expression of a single base mutation in the X chromosome whereas, the expression of a single base mutation is masked in female XX chromosome pair combination. Moreover, the male Y chromosome has no known genes of significant importance.
Gender identity may be hard-wired into the brain. Eric Vilain at UCLA compared the activity levels of genes in male and female brains in 10-day-old embryonic mice-days before they developed sex organs.
He found 18 genes that were more strongly active in male embryonic brains, and 36 that were revved up in female brains. The finding suggests that genes play an important role in the early development of sexual identity and perhaps shaping gender.
Racial and ethnic groups can exhibit degrees of tolerance to disease incidence, disease severity, disease progression, and response to treatment.
In the United States, African Americans have higher rates of mortality than any other racial or ethnic group for eight of the top ten causes of death. U.S. Latinos have higher rates of death from diabetes, liver disease, and infectious diseases than do non-Latinos.
Native Americans suffer from higher rates of diabetes, tuberculosis, pneumonia, influenza, and alcoholism than the rest of the U.S. population.
European Americans die more often from heart disease and cancer than do Native Americans, Asian Americans, or Hispanics (Berg et al 2005).
Based on their findings there are real genetic differences exist among the ethnic and racial divide. The members of these groups can have wide economic, social, and psychological experiences and can be exposed to very different environments as a consequence of their membership in a particular group.
These differential experiences and environmental exposures may be used to investigate the biological mechanisms that contribute to health disparities among groups (Berg et al. 2005).
In addition, self-identified race, ethnicity, or ancestry can provide measures of population substructure that help avoid false-positive results in association studies.
To be continued...
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* Chong Singsit, Ph. D. contributes regularly to e-pao.net.
The writer can be contacted at singsit(at)earthlink(dot)net .
This article was webcasted on 10th December 2007.
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