PSY 399 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Coronary Artery Disease, Synaptic Pruning, Prenatal Development
12 Apr 2018
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Document Summary
Widely accepted that risks of a number of chronic diseases in adulthood have their origins in perinatal period. Newer research is finding similar links to mental health outcomes. Fetal undernutrition developmental responses increased cardiovascular and metabolic disease risk in adulthood. Responses: cholesterol, insulin resistance, visceral fat, hypertension. Genetic and environmental features control how genes function and how genes express themselves. This is called gene by environment interaction (gxe) Reflects fact that vast majority of genes are not preprogrammed. Vast majority await environmental signals to do what genes to: produce protein. Nearly every cell in body has the same genetic material. Cells behave differently based on which genes are active. Different patterns of gene silencing provides one way by which a single gene can have multiple effect. These genes may be silences one way at one point of development or because of specific experience and in different ways at another point in development.
