The Discrimination of Human Odour by the Dog

Perception ◽  
1988 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 549-554 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter G Hepper
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Factors ◽  
Discrimination Task ◽  
Genetic Relatedness ◽  
Simultaneous Discrimination ◽  
Matching To Sample ◽  
Genes And Environment ◽  
Human Odour

In reply to a suggestion made by Galton in 1875, the ability of dogs to discriminate between the odour of human twins was investigated. In a matching-to-sample simultaneous discrimination task, dogs were tested on their ability to discriminate odours from twins differing only in genetic relatedness or only in environmental factors, particularly diet, or from twins identical in both genetic relatedness and environmental factors. Dogs could discriminate between the odours from twins who differed only in environmental factors and between the odours of twins who differed only in genetic relatedness. However, they were unable to discriminate between odours produced by infant twins identical in both genetic relatedness and environmental factors. Thus twins may be discriminated by dogs as long as they differ in genetic relatedness or environmental factors. The possible source of discriminable odours is discussed and how the effects of genes and environment are mediated considered.

scholarly journals Autism spectrum disorder at the crossroad between genes and environment: contributions, convergences, and interactions in ASD developmental pathophysiology

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Cristina Cheroni ◽  
Nicolò Caporale ◽  
Giuseppe Testa
Keyword(s):  
Autism Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Environmental Factors ◽  
Neurodevelopmental Disorders ◽  
Chemical Exposure ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Synaptic Function ◽  
Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Regulatory Pathways ◽  
Genes And Environment ◽  
Analytical Approaches

Abstract The complex pathophysiology of autism spectrum disorder encompasses interactions between genetic and environmental factors. On the one hand, hundreds of genes, converging at the functional level on selective biological domains such as epigenetic regulation and synaptic function, have been identified to be either causative or risk factors of autism. On the other hand, exposure to chemicals that are widespread in the environment, such as endocrine disruptors, has been associated with adverse effects on human health, including neurodevelopmental disorders. Interestingly, experimental results suggest an overlap in the regulatory pathways perturbed by genetic mutations and environmental factors, depicting convergences and complex interplays between genetic susceptibility and toxic insults. The pervasive nature of chemical exposure poses pivotal challenges for neurotoxicological studies, regulatory agencies, and policy makers. This highlights an emerging need of developing new integrative models, including biomonitoring, epidemiology, experimental, and computational tools, able to capture real-life scenarios encompassing the interaction between chronic exposure to mixture of substances and individuals’ genetic backgrounds. In this review, we address the intertwined roles of genetic lesions and environmental insults. Specifically, we outline the transformative potential of stem cell models, coupled with omics analytical approaches at increasingly single cell resolution, as converging tools to experimentally dissect the pathogenic mechanisms underlying neurodevelopmental disorders, as well as to improve developmental neurotoxicology risk assessment.

Genetic and Cultural Transmission of Antisocial Behavior: An Extended Twin Parent Model

2007 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 136-150 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hermine H. Maes ◽  
Judy L. Silberg ◽  
Michael C. Neale ◽  
Lindon J. Eaves
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Factors ◽  
Antisocial Behavior ◽  
Assortative Mating ◽  
Cultural Transmission ◽  
Shared Environment ◽  
Simultaneous Estimation ◽  
Adoption Studies ◽  
Expression Of Genes ◽  
Genes And Environment ◽  
Genetic And Environmental Factors

AbstractConsiderable evidence from twin and adoption studies indicates that both genetic and shared environmental factors play a substantial role in the liability to antisocial behavior. Although twin and adoption designs can resolve genetic and environmental influences, they do not provide information about assortative mating, parent–offspring transmission, or the contribution of these factors to trait variation. We examined the role of genetic and environmental factors for conduct disorder (CD) using a twin–parent design. This design allows the simultaneous estimation of additive genetic, shared and individual-specific environmental effects, as well as sex differences in the expression of genes and environment in the presence of assortative mating and combined genetic and cultural transmission. A retrospective measure of CD was obtained from twins and their parents or guardians in the Virginia Twin Study of Adolescent Behavior Development and its Young Adult Follow up sample. Both genetic and environmental factors play a significant role in the liability to CD. Major influences on individual differences appeared to be additive genetic (38%–40%) and unique environmental (39%–42%) effects, with smaller contributions from the shared environment (18%–23%), assortative mating (~2%), cultural transmission (~2%) and resulting genotype-environment covariance. This study showed significant heritability, which is slightly increased by assortative mating, and significant effects of primarily nonparental shared environment on CD.

scholarly journals Etiology of Hypomineralized Second Primary Molars: A Prospective Twin Study

2018 ◽  
Vol 98 (1) ◽  
pp. 77-83 ◽  
Author(s):  
M.J. Silva ◽  
N.M. Kilpatrick ◽  
J.M. Craig ◽  
D.J. Manton ◽  
P. Leong ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Risk Factors ◽  
Environmental Factors ◽  
Environmental Risk ◽  
Maternal Smoking ◽  
Environmental Risk Factors ◽  
Primary Molars ◽  
Second Primary ◽  
Hydroxyvitamin D ◽  
Genes And Environment ◽  
25 Hydroxyvitamin D

The etiology of hypomineralized second primary molars (HSPM) is unclear, but genetic and environmental factors have been proposed. The aim of this study was to investigate the relative contribution of genes and environment to the etiology of HSPM and to identify potential environmental risk factors in a longitudinal twin cohort. Children from twin pregnancies ( N = 250) were recruited antenatally, and detailed demographic, health, and phenotypic data were collected at recruitment, 24- and 36-wk gestation, birth, and 18 mo of age. 25-Hydroxyvitamin D was quantified for mothers at 28-wk gestation and infants at birth. Dental examinations were conducted on the twins at 6 y of age to determine the presence, severity, and extent of HSPM per standardized criteria. To investigate associations of environmental risk factors with HSPM, multiple logistic regression models were fitted with generalized estimating equations to adjust for twin correlation. Within- and between-pair analyses were performed for unshared continuous variables: birthweight and birth 25-hydroxyvitamin D. Twin-twin concordance for monozygotic (MZ) and dizygotic (DZ) pairs was calculated and compared after adjusting for identified risk factors. A total of 344 twins underwent the 6-y-old dental assessment; HSPM occurred in 68 (19.8%). After adjusting for potential confounders, vitamin D levels at birth, infantile eczema, dizygosity, in vitro fertilization, socioeconomic position, and maternal smoking beyond the first trimester of pregnancy demonstrated the strongest associations with HSPM. Overall concordance for HSPM was 0.47 (95% CI, 0.32 to 0.62) with weak evidence ( P = 0.078) of higher concordance in MZ twins (0.63; 95% CI, 0.38 to 0.89) as compared with DZ twins (0.41; 95% CI, 0.24 to 0.58). After adjusting for known risk factors, there was no evidence ( P = 0.172) for an additive genetic influence. These findings suggest that shared and unshared environmental factors, such as maternal smoking later in pregnancy and infantile eczema, are important in the etiology of HSPM.

scholarly journals Do young domestic pigs (Sus scrofa domestica) rely on object-specific cues in a simultaneous discrimination task?

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Nawroth ◽  
Eberhard von Borell
Keyword(s):  
Discrimination Task ◽  
Instrumental Learning ◽  
Simultaneous Discrimination ◽  
Food Sources ◽  
Natural Environments ◽  
Learning Mechanisms ◽  
Learning Abilities ◽  
Domestic Pigs ◽  
Food Container ◽  
Young Pigs

Finding and relocating food sources is not only crucial for individuals in changing natural environments - it is also of importance in domestic animals under husbandry conditions, for instance to reduce stress when transferring animals into new housing conditions. This study makes a first attempt by investigating young pigs´ use of conflicting spatial and feature cues in a simultaneous discrimination task. In a training phase, subjects (n = 9) first learned to approach a food container with distinct spatial and feature cues. In a subsequent test phase, spatial and feature cues were brought into conflict. Results show that young pigs significantly preferred to approach the spatial position rather than the feature cue of a food container – at least for the visual domain - while inter-individual differences in choice behaviour suggest that animals recognized the changed context. However, the actual test setup did not exclude alternatives to the use of spatial cues, e.g. instrumental learning. The results may contribute to a better understanding of learning mechanisms in domestic pigs and could be used to improve husbandry designs, reduce stress levels after transfer and may prove to be helpful in designing further test paradigms investigating discriminative learning abilities in the domestic pig.

scholarly journals Acquisition of Oral Microbiota is Driven by Environment, Not Host Genetics

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chiranjit Mukherjee ◽  
Christina O. Moyer ◽  
Heidi M. Steinkamp ◽  
Shahr B. Hashmi ◽  
Xiaohan Guo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Factors ◽  
Genetic Relatedness ◽  
Oral Microbiome ◽  
Shared Environment ◽  
Rrna Gene ◽  
Oral Microbiota ◽  
Host Genetics ◽  
Intergenic Spacer Region ◽  
Behavioral Similarity ◽  
Mz Twins

ABSTRACTThe human oral microbiota is acquired early in an organized pattern, but the factors driving this acquisition are not well understood. Microbial “heritability” could have far-reaching consequences for health, yet no studies have specifically examined the fidelity with which the oral microbiota are passed from parents to offspring. Some previous studies comparing monozygotic (MZ) and dizygotic (DZ) twins had suggested that host genetics has a role in shaping oral microbial communities, and also identified so called “heritable” taxa. However, these findings are likely to be confounded by shared environmental factors resulting from the well-established greater behavioral similarity among MZ twins. In addition, MZ and DZ twins share an equal portion of their parent’s genome, and so this model is not informative for studying direct parent to offspring transmission.To specifically examine the contribution of genetics to the fidelity of transmission of bacteria from parents to offspring, we used a novel study design comparing fraction of shared species and strains between our genetically related group consisting of children and their biological mothers, with that of children and their adoptive mothers, constituting our genetically unrelated group. Fifty-five biological and 50 adoptive mother-child pairs were recruited along with 23 biological fathers and 16 siblings. Subjects were carefully selected to ensure the two groups were matched on child’s age. Three distinct habitats within the oral cavity: the saliva/soft tissue surface, supragingival biofilm, and subgingival biofilm, were sampled to comprehensively profile the oral microbiome. Our recently developed strategy for subspecies level characterization of bacterial communities by targeted sequencing of the ribosomal 16-23S intergenic spacer region (ISR) was utilized in the present study to track strain sharing between subjects, in addition to 16S rRNA gene sequencing for species analysis.Results showed that oral bacterial community profiles of adoptive and biological mother-child pairs were equally similar, indicating no effect of host genetics on the fidelity of transmission. This was consistent at both species and strain level resolutions, and across all three habitats sampled. We also found that all children more closely resembled their own mother as compared to unrelated women, suggesting that contact and shared environment were the major factors shaping the oral microbiota. Individual analysis of the most abundant species also did not detect any effect of host genetics on strain sharing between mother and child. Mother-child strain similarity increased with the age of the child, ruling out early effects that are lost over time. No effect on the fidelity of mother-child strain sharing from vaginal birth or breast feeding was seen. Analysis of extended families showed that fathers and mothers were equally similar to their children. Cohabitating couples showed even greater strain similarity than mother-child pairs, further supporting the role of age, contact and shared environment as determinants of microbial similarity.Based on these findings we suggest that the genetic effects on oral microbial acquisition observed in twin studies are more likely the result of confounding environmental factors based on greater behavioral similarity among MZ twins. Our findings suggest that these host mechanisms are universal to humans, since no effect of genetic relatedness on fidelity of microbial transmission could be detected. Instead, our findings point toward contact and shared environment being the driving factors of microbial transmission, with a unique combination of these factors ultimately shaping a highly personalized human oral microbiome.

Innateness

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven Gross ◽  
Georges Rey
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Factors ◽  
John Locke ◽  
External World ◽  
Causal Process ◽  
Common Currency ◽  
Genes And Environment ◽  
Biological Determinants ◽  
Mental Operations ◽  
The Mind ◽  
Relevant Factors

The article describes to what extent the structures and contents of the mind are innate, and to what extent they are learned or otherwise acquired from the environment. Aristotle argued that all ideas are derived from experience by a causal process in which forms (or properties of things) in the external world are transmitted into the mind. John Locke insisted that the simple ideas are derived from sensation, and all other ideas are constructed from the simple ones by the mental operations of compounding, comparing, and abstracting. Sober emphasized that there is no common currency with which to compare the relative contributions of genes and environment and suggested that biological determinants do not in general decompose into amounts of genetic versus nongenetic force. Sober suggested that there might not be a single specification of relevant environments and one might need to fix the range pragmatically as it varies with explanatory interests. Ariew suggested that what matters for innateness is whether a trait's emergence is sensitive to certain specific kinds of environmental factors, where the relevant factors can vary with the trait in question and indeed with one's explanatory interest. Fodor's initial agument for the innateness of concepts was quite simple. He pointed out that standard accounts of learning a trait it as a process of hypothesis confirmation.

scholarly journals Genes and environment in multiple sclerosis: Impact of temporal changes in the sex ratio on recurrence risks

2021 ◽  
pp. 135245852110202
Author(s):  
A Dessa Sadovnick ◽  
Irene M Yee ◽  
Maria Criscuoli ◽  
Gabriele C DeLuca
Keyword(s):  
Multiple Sclerosis ◽  
Environmental Factors ◽  
Sex Ratio ◽  
Family Environment ◽  
Familial Risk ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Study Cohort ◽  
University Of British Columbia ◽  
Genes And Environment ◽  
The Impact

Objective: To evaluate the impact of temporal increase of female to male (F:M) sex ratio for persons with multiple sclerosis (MS) on the familial risk (empiric recurrence risks or RRs) for biological relatives of affected individuals. Methods: Detailed family histories were systematically obtained from people with MS attending the University of British Columbia Hospital MS Clinic. The study cohort was born in 1970 or more recently. Data were collected from 1 September 2015 to 31 January 2019. The study was designed to allow only one proband per family. Age-corrected RRs for biological relatives of probands were calculated based on a modification of the maximum-likelihood approach. Results: Data analyses were possible for 746 unique probands (531 females; 215 males) and 19,585 of their biological relatives. RRs were temporally impacted. Conclusion: Both genetic sharing and environmental factors are important in determining RRs. It appears that there is an increase in MS risk due to environmental factors in later life (i.e. not shared family environment). Environmental exposures in genetically predisposed individuals might be driving the MS risk. The increase in F:M ratio of RRs for sisters/brothers of female probands over time is likely due to environmental differences.

scholarly journals Do young domestic pigs (Sus scrofa domestica) rely on object-specific cues in a simultaneous discrimination task?

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Nawroth ◽  
Eberhard von Borell
Keyword(s):  
Discrimination Task ◽  
Instrumental Learning ◽  
Simultaneous Discrimination ◽  
Food Sources ◽  
Natural Environments ◽  
Learning Mechanisms ◽  
Learning Abilities ◽  
Domestic Pigs ◽  
Food Container ◽  
Young Pigs

Finding and relocating food sources is not only crucial for individuals in changing natural environments - it is also of importance in domestic animals under husbandry conditions, for instance to reduce stress when transferring animals into new housing conditions. This study makes a first attempt by investigating young pigs´ use of conflicting spatial and feature cues in a simultaneous discrimination task. In a training phase, subjects (n = 9) first learned to approach a food container with distinct spatial and feature cues. In a subsequent test phase, spatial and feature cues were brought into conflict. Results show that young pigs significantly preferred to approach the spatial position rather than the feature cue of a food container – at least for the visual domain - while inter-individual differences in choice behaviour suggest that animals recognized the changed context. However, the actual test setup did not exclude alternatives to the use of spatial cues, e.g. instrumental learning. The results may contribute to a better understanding of learning mechanisms in domestic pigs and could be used to improve husbandry designs, reduce stress levels after transfer and may prove to be helpful in designing further test paradigms investigating discriminative learning abilities in the domestic pig.

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