Over the past several decades, there has been a tremendous growth in our understanding of genetic phenomena and the intricate and complicated mechanisms that mediate genetic effects. Given the complexity of content in modern genetics and the inadequacy of current instructional methods and materials it seems that a more coherent and extensive…

Intrasubject variability in response time (ISV-RT) was higher in youths with bipolar disorder (BD) and those with first-degree relatives with BD compared to youths without BD. ISV-RT may be a risk marker for BD.

This article reports that a new study has found that young men are less likely to attend college if they carry a common form of a gene associated with poor impulse control. The study also found that a strong environment--a high-quality high school and heavily involved parents--can counteract that genetic risk. For boys with this gene who grow up…

Background: Etiological hypotheses of eating disorders, anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa have not produced informative research for predictably effective treatment. Methods: The rationale for applying a model of allostasis, a dysregulation of reward circuits with activation of brain and hormonal stress responses to maintain apparent stability,…

The epidemiology of the mental and physical health of children and adolescents the world over reflects: the genomes they inherit (and the modifications those genes undergo in utero); the pregnancies that led to their births, whether their mothers survive those pregnancies, and whether their births were welcome; the parents, the neighbors, and the…

Background: Autism and Williams syndrome (WS) are neuro-developmental disorders associated with distinct social phenotypes. While individuals with autism show a lack of interest in socially important cues, individuals with WS often show increased interest in socially relevant information. Methods: The current eye-tracking study explores how…

Autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) are a group of neurodevelopmental disorders with a strong genetic etiology. Cytogenetic abnormalities have been detected in 5-10% of the patients with autism. In this study, we present the clinical, cytogenetic and array-comparative genomic hybridization (array-CGH) evaluation of a 13-year-old male with severe…

This new biochemistry laboratory course moves through a progression of experiments that generates a platform for guided inquiry-based experiments. RNase One gene is isolated from prokaryotic genomic DNA, expressed as a tagged protein, affinity purified, and tested for activity and substrate specificity. Student pairs present detailed explanations…

Activation of the N-methyl-d-aspartate receptor (NMDAR) glycine site has been shown to accelerate adaptive forms of learning that may benefit psychopathologies involving cognitive and perseverative disturbances. In this study, the effects of increasing the brain levels of the endogenous NMDAR glycine site agonist D-serine, through the genetic…

Williams Syndrome (WS) is a rare neurodevelopmental disorder, which stems from a genetic deletion on chromosome 7 and causes a profound weakness in visuospatial cognition. Our current study explores how orientation perception may contribute to the visuospatial deficits in WS. In Experiment 1, we found that WS individuals and normal 3-4 year olds…

Genetic susceptibility to multiple sclerosis (MS) is associated with the human leukocyte antigen (HLA) "DRB1*1501" allele. Here we show a clear association between DRB1*1501 carrier status and four domains of disease severity in an investigation of genotype-phenotype associations in 505 robust, clinically well characterized MS patients evaluated…

We investigated empowerment in the Alpha-1 Antitrypsin Deficiency (Alpha-1) community, a rare, genetic disease network in the United States. The research was motivated by nine years of observations in the community. After observing what seemed to be a heightened amount of activism among Alpha-1 community members, I had hypothesized that this…

This study, drawing on approximately 1,100 males from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, demonstrates the importance of genetics, and genetic-environmental interactions, for understanding adolescent delinquency and violence. Our analyses show that three genetic polymorphisms--specifically, the 30-bp promoter-region variable…

The role of sub-cortical structures in language processing, and more specifically of the striatum, remains controversial. In line with psycholinguistic models stating that language processing implies both the recovery of lexical information and the application of combinatorial rules, the striatum has been claimed to be involved either in the…

The article highlights the field of epigenetics and its relevance in determining the effects of maternal nurturing on behavioral patterns in offsprings. Results concluded that maternal behavior influences the offspring's behavior to stress in adulthood and the effects are transgenerational through epigenetic mechanisms.