Evolution, genes, and inter‐disciplinary personality research

2007 ◽  
Vol 21 (5) ◽  
pp. 639-665 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lars Penke ◽  
Jaap J. A. Denissen ◽  
Geoffrey F. Miller
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Factors ◽  
Mate Choice ◽  
Evolutionary Theory ◽  
Genetic Model ◽  
Integrative Model ◽  
Genetic Approach ◽  
Genetic Theory ◽  
Personality Research ◽  
Evolutionary Genetic ◽  
Scientific Status

Most commentaries welcomed an evolutionary genetic approach to personality, but several raised concerns about our integrative model. In response, we clarify the scientific status of evolutionary genetic theory and explain the plausibility and value of our evolutionary genetic model of personality, despite some shortcomings with the currently available theories and data. We also have a closer look at mate choice for personality traits, point to promising ways to assess evolutionarily relevant environmental factors and defend higher‐order personality domains and the g‐factor as the best units for evolutionary genetic analyses. Finally, we discuss which extensions of and alternatives to our model appear most fruitful, and end with a call for more inter‐disciplinary personality research grounded in evolutionary theory. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Elaborating the social brain hypothesis of schizophrenia

2004 ◽  
Vol 27 (6) ◽  
pp. 868-885 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Kenneth Burns
Keyword(s):  
Social Cognition ◽  
Evolutionary Theory ◽  
Genetic Model ◽  
Emergent Property ◽  
Brain Anatomy ◽  
Cerebral Asymmetry ◽  
Social Brain ◽  
Top Down ◽  
The Social ◽  
Evolutionary Genetic

I defend the case for an evolutionary theory of schizophrenia and the social brain, arguing that such an exercise necessitates a broader methodology than that familiar to neuroscience. I propose a reworked evolutionary genetic model of schizophrenia, drawing on insights from commentators, buttressing my claim that psychosis is a costly consequence of sophisticated social cognition in humans. Expanded models of social brain anatomy and the spectrum of psychopathologies are presented in terms of upper and lower social brain and top-down and bottom-up processes. Finally, I argue that cerebral asymmetry evolved as an emergent property of primary intrahemispheric reorganisation in hominoids.

scholarly journals On the Etiology of Aesthetic Chills: a Behavioral Genetic Study

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giacomo Bignardi ◽  
Rebecca Chamberlain ◽  
Sofieke T Kevenaar ◽  
Zenab Tamimy ◽  
Dorret I Boomsma
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Environmental Factors ◽  
The Netherlands ◽  
Genetic Study ◽  
Genetic Model ◽  
Physiological Factors ◽  
Somatic Marker ◽  
Show Evidence ◽  
Sources Of Variation ◽  
Behavioral Genetic Study

Aesthetic chills, broadly defined as a somatic marker of peak emotional-hedonic responses, are experienced by individuals across a variety of human cultures. Yet individuals vary widely in the propensity of feeling them. These individual differences have been studied in relation to demographics, personality, and neurobiological and physiological factors, but no study to date has explored the genetic etiological sources of variation. To partition genetic and environmental sources of variation in the propensity of feeling aesthetic chills, we fitted a biometrical genetic model to data from 14127 twins (from 8995 pairs), collected by the Netherlands Twin Register. Both genetic and unique environmental factors accounted for variance in aesthetic chills, with heritability estimated at .36 ([.33, .39] 95% CI). We found females more prone than males to report feeling aesthetic chills. However, a test for genotype x sex interaction did not show evidence that heritability differs between sexes. We thus show that the propensity of feeling aesthetic chills is not shaped by nurture alone, but it also reflects underlying genetic propensities.

scholarly journals Environmental Factors Determine Where the Dutch Live: Results From the Netherlands Twin Register

2005 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 312-317 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gonneke Willemsen ◽  
Danielle Posthuma ◽  
Dorret I. Boomsma
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Factors ◽  
The Netherlands ◽  
Genetic Model ◽  
Model Fitting ◽  
Residential Area ◽  
Postal Code ◽  
Young Cohort ◽  
Dutch Population ◽  
Urbanization Level ◽  
Age Cohorts

AbstractThe heritability of the degree of residential area urbanization in twins and their siblings in the Dutch population was examined. The postal code was known for 6879 twins and 2724 siblings registered with the Netherlands Twin Register and born between 1940 and 1983. Using data from Statistics Netherlands (Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek, 2001), these postal codes could be related to residential area characteristics, including urbanization level. The degree of urbanization was assessed on a 5-point scale: very heavy, heavy, moderate, low and not urbanized. Genetic model-fitting was carried out in three age cohorts: young adults (born 1975 to 1983), adults (born 1965 to 1974) and older adults (born 1940 to1964). Twin and sibling resemblance in urbanization level was expressed in polychoric correlations. These correlations decreased from the youngest cohort (.66 to .86) to the oldest cohort (.20 to .58). In all 3 age cohorts, genetic factors did not contribute to familial resemblance. The influence of common environment decreased in importance from the young cohort (70% to 83%) to the old cohort (46% to 47%) and was lower in women than in men in all but the oldest age cohort. This study did not replicate Australian findings of a genetic contribution in the older cohorts; common environmental factors and, increasingly with age, unique environmental factors determine where the Dutch live. Future studies in European and other populations will reveal whether these results are specific to the Dutch population.

scholarly journals Segregation of Species-Specific Male Attractiveness in F2 Hybrid Lake Malawi Cichlid Fish

2011 ◽  
Vol 2011 ◽  
pp. 1-7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ola Svensson ◽  
Bernd Egger ◽  
Boye Gricar ◽  
Katie Woodhouse ◽  
Cock van Oosterhout ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mate Choice ◽  
Reproductive Isolation ◽  
Genetic Model ◽  
Cichlid Fish ◽  
Lake Malawi ◽  
Paternity Analysis ◽  
Colour Pattern ◽  
Male Mating ◽  
Heritable Variation ◽  
Species Specific

Among the huge radiations of haplochromine cichlid fish in Lakes Malawi and Victoria, closely related species are often reproductively isolated via female mate choice although viable fertile hybrids can be produced when females are confined only with heterospecific males. We generated F2 hybrid males from a cross between a pair of closely related sympatric cichlid fish from Lake Malawi. Laboratory mate choice experiments using microsatellite paternity analysis demonstrated that F2 hybrid males differed significantly in their attractiveness to females of the two parental species, indicating heritable variation in traits involved in mate choice that may contribute to reproductive isolation between these species. We found no significant correlation between male mating success and any measurement of male colour pattern. A simple quantitative genetic model of reproductive isolation suggests that there may be as few as two chromosomal regions controlling species-specific attractiveness. We propose that adaptive radiation of Lake Malawi cichlids could be facilitated by the presence of genes with major effects on mate choice and reproductive isolation.

Species concepts: a contrast of viewpoints

1996 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 295-301
Author(s):  
Günter Gollmann
Keyword(s):  
Population Genetic ◽  
Species Concepts ◽  
Phylogenetic Species ◽  
Genetic Theory ◽  
Pattern And Process ◽  
Genealogical Concordance ◽  
Evolutionary Genetic

AbstractSome fundamental contrasts underlying the disputes about species concepts are outlined: nominalistic versus essentialistic viewpoints, relations of pattern and process, and incongruities of population genetic, ecological, and phylogenetic approaches. The biological, evolutionary and phylogenetic species concepts are briefly characterized. Attention is drawn to the cohesion concept of species and to genealogical concordance principles, which attempt to integrate elements of those concepts with advances in population biological and evolutionary genetic theory.

scholarly journals The Determinants and Consequences of District Partisan Change and Intactness in the Congressional Redistricting Process: An Integrative Model

2016 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 48
Author(s):  
Richard Born
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Factors ◽  
Path Analysis ◽  
Integrative Model ◽  
Analysis Model ◽  
Partisan Change ◽  
Party Control ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Path Analysis Model

In this study of redistricting from 1992 to 2012, we develop an integrative path analysis model that links together the two parts of the congressional redistricting process: the impact of political and environmental antecedent variables on district partisan change and constituency intactness, and the subsequent impact that partisan chance and intactness have on incumbent reelection margin. Environmental factors, most notably the extent of a district’s overor under-population prior to redistricting, are found to ultimately make more difference on safety than does party control of the redistricting plan. Furthermore, the pathways extending through partisan change are more important for members’ reelection margin than are the pathways extending through intactness. Since members typically end up with a sizable share of new constituents, however, whereas a fairly even balance exists between districts left with pro-incumbent or anti-incumbent partisan change, the average member actually has somewhat more to fear from the former product of the redistricting process.

Animals and Ecological Science

2015 ◽  
pp. 488-505 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anita Guerrini
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Synthetic Biology ◽  
Endangered Species ◽  
Environmental Factors ◽  
Natural History ◽  
Evolutionary Theory ◽  
Darwinian Evolution ◽  
Human Influence ◽  
Ecological Science ◽  
New Criteria

Ecological science, which studies the relationships between organisms and their environments, developed from natural history. Aristotle’s teleological chain of being and detailed description modeled natural history until the eighteenth century. Linnaeus and Buffon replaced Aristotelian categories with new criteria for classification, leading the way to Darwin’s evolutionary theory. Darwinian evolution depended on environmental factors and led to the birth of ecological science by the end of the nineteenth century. The ecosystem concept emphasizes populations and systems rather than individuals. Case studies, of wolves and fish show the range of modern ecological science. Anthropogenic changes to the environment have led to extinction and endangered species. Attempts to meliorate human influence include rewilding and synthetic biology.

Designing nootropic dipeptides using an evolutionary-genetic approach

2006 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 18-22
Author(s):  
T. A. Gudasheva ◽  
S. S. Trofimov ◽  
A. A. Morozova ◽  
S. V. Nikitin ◽  
R. U. Ostrovskaya ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Genetic Approach ◽  
Evolutionary Genetic
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