Associations between obstetric and parental psychiatric variables and subjects' Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised (ADI-R) and Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS) domain scores were examined using linear mixed effects models. Data for the 228 families studied were provided by the Autism Genetic Resource Exchange. Hypertension (P =…

Gene expression is a difficult topic for students to learn and comprehend, at least partially because it involves various biochemical structures and processes occurring at the microscopic level. Designer Bacteria, a design-based learning (DBL) unit for high-school students, applies principles of DBL to the teaching of gene expression. Throughout…

Girls growing up in homes without their biological fathers tend to go through puberty earlier than their peers. Whereas evolutionary theories of socialization propose that this relation is causal, it could arise from environmental or genetic confounds. To distinguish between these competing explanations, the authors used a genetically and…

Although fragile X syndrome (FXS) is a single gene disorder with a well-described phenotype, it is not known why some individuals develop more significant maladaptive behaviors such as aggression or autistic symptoms. Here, we studied two candidate genes known to affect mood and aggression, the serotonin transporter (5-HTTLPR) and monoamine…

The human elastin gene (ELN) is responsible for the generation of elastic fibres in the extracellular matrix of connective tissue throughout the body, including the vocal folds. Individuals with Supravalvular aortic stenosis (SVAS) and Williams syndrome (WS) lack one normal ELN allele due to heterozygous ELN abnormalities, resulting in a…

Based on a sample of 406 seven-year-old twins, this study examined whether exposure to friends' social or physical aggression, respectively, moderates the effect of heritability on children's own social and physical aggression. Univariate analyses showed that children's own social and physical aggression were significantly explained by genetic…

The present study was carried out to examine physiological arousal modulation (heart activity and skin conductance), across baseline and cognitive tasks, in females with fragile X or Turner syndrome and a comparison group of females with neither syndrome. Relative to the comparison group, for whom a greater increase in skin conductance was…

Gilbert Gottlieb's theory of probabilistic epigenesis is a fertile ground for further theoretical construction in developmental science. It fills the gap in the domineering empiricism and honoring of inductive generalization that dominates psychology in the beginning of the 21st century, by offering a basic deductive framework for guiding the…

Discussed are the ontogenetic and evolutionary implications of Dr. Gottlieb's perinatal research with ducklings. His evolutionary theory which proposes that behavior is the primary engine driving evolution is reviewed as is his experimental examination of behavioral neophenotypes. The methodology and findings from Gottlieb (1991/2007) are…

We develop and test a dual-route model of genetic effects on reading aloud and spelling, based on irregular and non-word reading and spelling performance assessed in 1382 monozygotic and dizygotic twins. As in earlier research, most of the variance in reading was due to genetic effects. However, there were three more specific conclusions: the…

Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) profiles can be generated by a variety of techniques incorporating different types of DNA markers. Simple methods are commonly utilized in the undergraduate laboratory, but with certain drawbacks. In this article, the author presents an advancement of the "Alu" dimorphism technique involving two tetraplex polymerase…

Fragile X syndrome (FXS) is due to the silencing of a single X-linked gene and it is associated with striking attentional difficulties. As FXS is well characterised at the cellular level, the condition provides a unique opportunity to investigate how a genetic dysfunction can impact on the development of neurocomputational properties relevant to…

Behavioural genetics was initially concerned with partitioning population variance into that due to genetics and that due to environmental influences. The implication was that the two were separate and it was assumed that gene-environment interactions were usually of so little importance that they could safely be ignored. Theoretical…

Mice have become the model of choice for studies of Down syndrome due to the fact that mouse chromosome 16 bears a striking resemblance to human chromosome 21. This has allowed researchers to create various mouse models of Down syndrome, but this is a tricky business on many levels. Great expertise is required to manipulate DNA to create these…

In this commentary, the author focuses on the claim summarized in the last sentence of the target article's abstract. To begin, the concept of talent does not require the existence of "innate constraints to the attainment of elite achievement". On the contrary, genetic endowment may merely influence the rate at which domain-specific expertise is…