Behavioural genetics
Behavioural genetics is the field of study that examines the role of genetics in animal (including human) behaviour. Often associated with the idea of "nature versus nurture", behavioural genetics is highly interdisciplinary, involving contributions from biology, genetics, ethology, psychology, and statistics. Behavioural geneticists study the inheritance of behavioural traits, often using the twin study or adoption study as a tool in humans, or breeding, transgenesis, or gene knockout techniques in animal genetics; psychiatric genetics is a closely related field.
History
Sir Francis Galton, a nineteenth-century intellect, is recognized as one of the first behavioural geneticists. Galton, a cousin of Charles Darwin, studied the heritability of human ability, focusing on mental characteristics as well as eminence among close relatives in the English upper-class. In 1869, Galton published his results in Hereditary Genius.[1]
Behaviour genetics, per-se, gained recognition as a research discipline with the publication in 1960 of the textbook Behavior Genetics by J.L. Fuller and W.R. Thompson.[2]
Underscoring the role of evolution in behavioural genetics, Theodosius Dobzhansky was elected the first president of the Behavior Genetics Association in 1972; the BGA bestows the Dobzhansky Award on researchers for their outstanding contributions to the field. In the early 1970s, Lee Ehrman, a doctoral student of Dobzhansky, wrote seminal papers describing the relationship between genotype frequency and mating success in Drosophila[3] [4] [5], lending impetus to the pursuit of genetic studies of behaviour in other animals.
Notable behavioural geneticists
Notable behavioural geneticists include Dorret Boomsma, John DeFries, Lindon Eaves, David Fulker, John Hewitt, Kenneth Kendler, John Loehlin, Nick Martin, Gerald McClearn, Robert Plomin, Theodore Reich, who was a pioneer in psychiatric genetics, Hans van Abeelen, and Steven G. Vandenberg, the founding editor of the journal Behavior Genetics.
Journals
Behavioural geneticists are active in a variety of scientific disciplines including biology, medicine, pharmacology, psychiatry, and psychology; thus, behavioural-genetic research is published in a variety of scientific journals, including Nature and Science. Journals that specifically publish research in behavioural genetics include Behavior Genetics, Molecular Psychiatry, Psychiatric Genetics, Twin Research and Human Genetics, and Genes, Brain and Behavior.
See also
References
- ^ Hereditary Genius
- ^ Fuller, J.L., & Thompson, W.R. (1960). Behavior Genetics. New York: Wiley.
- ^ Ehrman, L. (1966). Mating success and genotype frequency in Drosophila. Animal Behaviour, 14, 332-339.
- ^ Ehrman, L. (1970a). Simulation of the mating advantage of rare Drosophila males. Science, 167, 905-906.
- ^ Ehrman, L. (1970b). The mating advantage of rare males in Drosophila. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 65, 345-348.