PSYCH211 Lecture Notes - Walter Jakob Gehring, Pax6, Amygdala
20 Dec 2012
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If human dna gets damaged, it will affect kids and anything that dna spreads too. Genes don"t cause diseases; technically they code for proteins. Genes are separate/not involved with how people are affected by parents, culture, and environment. Parents/culture/environment cause gene activity which causes brain organization, disease, knowledge, personality, values. When we learn, we store new info in memory. The storage of memories depends on a memory protein (cam kinase ii) Mutations in the gene that produces the memory protein prevent learning. Ex. if you knock out that specific gene (from mice, for example), they will not be able to learn. Genes and our environment interact constantly as learning happens! Rear rats in enriched environment or in impoverished environment: More dendritic spines (input part of neuron) on cortical neurons & more synapses per neuron. Thicker cortex & more supportive tissues (ex. blood vessels)
