PSYC 317 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Pleiotropy, Medical Genetics, Mendelian Inheritance

• School: McGill University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 317
• Professor: Jeffrey Mogil

Document Summary

Menand makes a critical error in his use of genetic terminology: (cid:862)ge(cid:374)e of aggressio(cid:374)(cid:863), (cid:862)ge(cid:374)e of al(cid:272)oholis(cid:373)(cid:863) This is referred to by geneticists as the (cid:862)gene for (cid:863) error. When someone says x is a gene for y phenotype; one is simplifying the situation. It is very unlikely that any behavioural traits are mediated by one gene. It also postulates that so(cid:373)eho(cid:449) a ge(cid:374)e leads dire(cid:272)tly to (cid:271)eha(cid:448)iour (cid:894)it does(cid:374)"t(cid:895). The idea that a gene could produce alcoholism is absurd. What genes actually do is form networks that interact with environmental factors in order to produce brain pathways and activities; the output of the brain activity is behaviour. Also, the idea that you ha(cid:448)e the ge(cid:374)e or (cid:374)ot is (cid:449)ro(cid:374)g; people do(cid:374)"t ha(cid:448)e a ge(cid:374)e or (cid:374)ot ha(cid:448)e it, they have one allele of a gene or another allele of a gene. There are more organisms living in and on us than our own cells.