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PubMed1999

Understanding biological and social influences on religious affiliation, attitudes, and behaviors: a behavior genetic perspective.

Although the transmission of religiousness has been assumed to be purely cultural, behavior genetic studies have demonstrated that genetic factors play a role in the individual differences in some religious traits. This article reviews the extant behavior genetic literature and presents new analyses from the "Virginia 30,000" on the causes of variation in religious affiliation, attitudes, and practices, and relates these to personality as construed by Eysenck. Results indicate that religious affiliation is primarily a culturally transmitted phenomenon, whereas religious attitudes and practices are moderately influenced by genetic factors. Further, Eysenck's personality traits do not mediate genetic influences on religiousness, but significant negative genetic correlations are found between church attendance and liberal sexual attitudes. Implications and possibilities for future studies are discussed.

Attitude↗
PubMed2004

An empirical comparison of information-theoretic selection criteria for multivariate behavior genetic models.

Information theory provides an attractive basis for statistical inference and model selection. However, little is known about the relative performance of different information-theoretic criteria in covariance structure modeling, especially in behavioral genetic contexts. To explore these issues, information-theoretic fit criteria were compared with regard to their ability to discriminate between multivariate behavioral genetic models under various model, distribution, and sample size conditions. Results indicate that performance depends on sample size, model complexity, and distributional specification. The Bayesian Information Criterion (BIC) is more robust to distributional misspecification than Akaike's Information Criterion (AIC) under certain conditions, and outperforms AIC in larger samples and when comparing more complex models. An approximation to the Minimum Description Length (MDL; Rissanen, J. (1996). IEEE Transactions on Information Theory 42:40-47, Rissanen, J. (2001). IEEE Transactions on Information Theory 47:1712-1717) criterion, involving the empirical Fisher information matrix, exhibits variable patterns of performance due to the complexity of estimating Fisher information matrices. Results indicate that a relatively new information-theoretic criterion, Draper's Information Criterion (DIC; Draper, 1995), which shares features of the Bayesian and MDL criteria, performs similarly to or better than BIC. Results emphasize the importance of further research into theory and computation of information-theoretic criteria.

Bayes Theorem↗
PubMed2006

Blueprints for behavior: genetic specification of neural circuitry for innate behaviors.

Innate behaviors offer a unique opportunity to use genetic analysis to dissect and characterize the neural substrates of complex behavioral programs. Courtship in Drosophila involves a complex series of stereotyped behaviors that include numerous exchanges of multimodal sensory information over time. As we will discuss in this review, recent work has demonstrated that male-specific expression of Fruitless transcription factors (Fru(M) proteins) is necessary and sufficient to confer the potential for male courtship behaviors. Fru(M) factors program neurons of the male central and peripheral nervous systems whose function is dedicated to sexual behaviors. This circuitry seems to integrate sensory information to define behavioral states and regulate conserved neural elements for sex-specific behavioral output. The principles that govern the circuitry specified by Fru(M) expression might also operate in subcortical networks that govern innate behaviors in mammals.

Animals↗
PubMed2000

An evaluation of different approaches for behavior genetic analyses with psychiatric symptom scores.

We used a simulation study to evaluate six approaches for behavior genetic analyses of psychiatric symptom scores. For the selection of the correct model, the best results were obtained with approaches using transformed scores in combination with a procedure involving p-values. With normalizing transformations, the chi 2 test statistic gave a reasonable impression of the overall fit of the model but was less accurate when used as a difference test. The asymptotic distribution free estimation methods yielded chi 2s that were much too large. All data analysis techniques yielded substantially biased parameter estimates. The most biased results were obtained with normalizing transformations. The least biased results were obtained with tobit correlations, but because of its large standard errors the most precise estimates were obtained with polychoric correlations and optimal scale scores. An empirical study showed that a recognition of the role of methodological factors was helpful to understand part of the differences between assessment instruments, raters, and data analysis techniques that were found in the real data.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1998

Functional organization of the human mind: implications for behavioral genetics research.

It is proposed that the fundamental goal of human behavior is to organize and control the social, biological, and physical environments that support reproduction and survival and that the human mind is organized as a system of social, biological, and physical modules that support attempts to seek such control. More precisely, modules are systems of motivational, emotional, cognitive, and behavioral processes that provide the interface between this fundamental goal and the environments within which this goal must be achieved. An outline of this functional systems approach to the human mind is provided and the implications of this perspective for behavioral genetics research are discussed.

Behavior↗
PubMed2003

Phenotypic and behavioral genetic covariation between elemental cognitive components and scholastic measures.

The study subjected nine elementary cognitive task variables from the Cognitive Assessment Tasks (CAT) and three scholastic measures from the Metropolitan Achievement Test (MAT) to phenotypic and behavioral genetic structural equation modeling based on data for 277 pairs of same sex monozygotic (MZ) and dizygotic (DZ) twins from the Western Reserve Twin Project. Phenotypic and behavioral genetic covariation between certain elemental cognitive components and scholastic performance was examined to determine (a) whether these elemental cognitive components contribute substantially to the variance of scholastic performance; (b) whether such contributions vary across different domains of school knowledge or from specific domains to a general aptitude; (c) the behavioral genetic composition of the elemental cognitive components and the scholastic variables; and (d) how the association between the cognitive components and scholastic performance is genetically and environmentally mediated. The results of the study showed that as much as 30% of the phenotypic variance of scholastic performance was accounted for by the CAT general factor, which was presumably related to mental speed. A mainly genetic covariation was found between the mental speed component and scholastic performance, although each of the two variables was strongly influenced by both heritability and common family environment. The magnitude and etiology of the covariation were largely invariant whether mental speed was related to a common scholastic aptitude or to individual achievement measures covering different knowledge domains. Taken in conjunction with previous findings that mental speed has a substantial genetic correlation with psychometric g, and psychometric g has a mostly genetic covariation with scholastic achievement, the findings of the present study seems to point to a more global picture; namely, there is a causal sequence that starts from mental speed as the explanatory factor for both psychometric g and scholastic performance, and the etiology of the causal link is chiefly genetic.

Child↗
PubMed2004

The consequences of selective participation on behavioral-genetic findings: evidence from simulated and real data.

Nonresponse occurs when individuals either have no chance of being included in a study (noncoverage), refuse to take part (unit nonresponse), or fail to give complete information (item nonresponse). The purpose of this article is to test the possible biasing effects of nonresponse on the results of behavioral-genetic studies. Simulations and a real data 'natural' experiment were used to determine the impact of nonresponse on estimates of additive genetic and environmental effects. The simulations used realistic twin-pair correlations and models of nonresponse derived from prior research. The real data 'natural experiment' used data from a nationally representative birth-cohort twin study (E-Risk Study) and compared model results from families who had responded to a mail survey to those from all study cases. Results showed that the primary influence of nonresponse was to attenuate the effect of the shared environment and to inflate estimates of nonshared environment and additive genetic effects. At high levels of nonresponse a spurious nonadditive genetic effect (suggesting genetic dominance) was also found. Study nonresponse was shown to have the potential to bias the findings of behavioral-genetic research. Design and analysis methods that can be used to alleviate this potentially important biasing effect in behavioral-genetic studies are discussed in light of these findings.

Antisocial Personality Disorder↗
PubMed1987

Behavioral genetics.

Certain farm animal behaviors are subject partially to genetic control. This article provides examples of how knowledge of genetic differences and genetic modification of farm animal behavior might enhance both human and animal welfare. The first part of the article deals with genetic differences among species or breeds, and the second part considers differences that exist within a particular breed or population.

Animals↗
PubMed1976

Twin studies and behavior genetics.

It is observed that neither the methodology of twin studies nor that of behavior genetics in general has been adequately explored in most investigations of human behavior. General distrust of genetic methodologies as well as the belief that genic disorders are unalterable appear to be salient factors in explaining the neglect of those areas by social scientists. A plea is made for putting aside biased attitudes that prevent utilization of the best available techniques for the study of human beings as distinguished from all other animals.

Attitude↗
PubMed1983

The use and abuse of environment in behavior-genetic research.

The measurements and conceptualizations of environment by environmentally oriented behavioral scientists and behavior geneticists are contrasted. For the environmentalist, the measurement of environment involves direct observation are manipulation. The environment is conceptualized as multidimensional, dynamic and transactional in nature, as well as being mediated, in its effects, by the individual. In contrast, in behavioral-genetic studies the environment is either estimated but not measured or is only measured indirectly. The conceptualization of environment used by behavior geneticists is static and global. In spite of these differing conceptualizations and measurements, areas of common interest are observed, centering around the question of how genotype and environment transact to influence development. Specifically, commonalities and joint research strategies are proposed for the areas of gene-environment correlation/transactional model and gene-environment interaction/organismic specificity.

Environment↗
PubMed1982

Neuropharmacogenetics and behavioral genetics.

Genetic studies of neurotransmitter processes to date differ from most behavioral genetic studies in that the former have rarely considered individual variability, have tended to look only for single-gene effects, and generally have overlooked or ignored environmental influences. After examining these differences, we suggest that a rapprochement between the two fields will yield synergistic benefits in studies of the genetics of neuropharmacological processes as they affect behavior.

Animals↗
PubMed1998

Multivariate behavioral genetic analysis of achievement and cognitive measures in reading-disabled and control twin pairs.

In recent years behavioral genetic studies have provided conclusive evidence that reading disability and related learning disorders, such as mathematics disability, are due at least in part to heritable factors (DeFries et al. 1987; Alarcón et al. 1997). Although the observed relationship between performance in these areas also may be due substantially to genetic influences (Light and DeFries 1995; Thompson et al. 1991), relatively few studies have examined the genetic and environmental etiology of this covariation in a multivariate framework. In the present study data from 196 identical (monozygotic; MZ) and 155 same-sex fraternal (dizygotic; DZ) twin pairs in which at least one member of each pair evidenced reading problems in school (reading disabled) were subjected to a multivariate behavioral genetic analysis. Structural equation models were fitted to twin data for verbal IQ (VIQ), phonological decoding ability (PHON), reading performance (READ), and mathematics performance (MATH) to assess the extent to which VIQ and PHON mediate the observed covariation between READ and MATH. Results suggest that VIQ and PHON account for most of the covariation between READ and MATH. Moreover, approximately 82% of the observed correlation between READ and MATH was due to genetic factors that also influence VIQ and PHON. When data from 132 MZ and 91 same-sex DZ control twin pairs in which neither twin had a history of reading problems were subjected to the same analyses, the covariation between READ and MATH was found to be due to both genetic and shared environmental influences. Thus genetic factors that influence VIQ and PHON also contribute to the observed covariation between READ and MATH in both a reading-disabled and a control twin sample.

Achievement↗
PubMed2003

Behavioral genetic approaches to visual system development and function in zebrafish.

The zebrafish is a recent vertebrate model system that shows great potential for a genetic analysis of behavior. Early development is extraordinarily rapid, so that larvae already display a range of behaviors 5 days after fertilization. In particular the visual system develops precociously, supporting a number of visually mediated behaviors in the larva. This provides the opportunity to use these visually mediated behaviors to screen chemically mutagenized strains for defects in vision. Larval optokinetic and optomotor responses have already been successfully employed to screen for mutant strains with defects in the visual system. In the adult zebrafish a visually mediated escape response has proved useful for screening for dominant mutations of the visual system. Here, I summarize visually mediated behaviors of both larval and adult zebrafish and their applicability for genetic screens, and present, the approaches and results of visual behavior carried out to date.

Animals↗
PubMed1993

Human behavioral genetics, Scarr's theory and her views on interventions: a critical review and commentary on their implications for African American children.

Key components of human behavioral genetics and Scarr's work of the past 2 decades are critically reviewed based on scholarship in animal neuropsychology and clinical and educational psychology. Scarr's theory of genotype --> environment effects is not supported by the confluence of information presented. Her opinion that interventions to enhance intellectual development are ineffectual for children from abuse- and neglect-free backgrounds is critically reviewed. Her view that biology makes nonrisk infants invulnerable to lasting, negative effects of day care is also determined to be untenable. Concern about negative implications of Scarr's theory for African Americans and views on interventions is the impetus for the critique.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2000

[Genetic analysis on flowering and boll setting in upland cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.). III. Genetic behavior at different developing stages].

An additive-dominant genetic model with genotype by environment interaction was employed to analyze the genetic behavior of flowering and fruiting at different development stages, with 2-year data from 4 x 4 diallel crosses. The results of variance analysis indicated that flowering and fruiting behaviors were mainly controlled by dominant effects at early period, but by additive effects later on. Compared with genetic main effects, GE interaction effects playeda minor role on the flowering and fruiting behavior. The analysis of covariance between average flower number, boll number at different development stages and total number of bolls showed that there were significant positive dominant correlation and negative or zero additive correlation before August 1st, but having the opposite results afterward. Interaction correlation existed during the whole period. It was found, by further analysis of conditional variances, that different development stages have diverse gene action intensity. The last ten days of July and the first-middle ten days of August had the highest gene action level. Time interval of investigation played a great role on exploring the law of gene action during the flowering and fruiting period; when selecting the time interval of investigation, it is necessary to contemplate the purpose of the experiment, environmental condition, investigating traits and developing period simultaneously.

Gossypium↗
PubMed2002

Exploratory factor analysis in behavior genetics research: factor recovery with small sample sizes.

Results of a Monte Carlo study of exploratory factor analysis demonstrate that in studies characterized by low sample sizes the population factor structure can be adequately recovered if communalities are high, model error is low, and few factors are retained. These are conditions likely to be encountered in behavior genetics research involving mean scores obtained from sets of inbred strains. Such studies are often characterized by a large number of measured variables relative to the number of strains used, highly reliable data, and high levels of communality. This combination of characteristics has special consequences for conducting factor analysis and interpreting results. Given that limitations on sample size are often unavoidable, it is recommended that researchers limit the number of expected factors as much as possible.

Animals↗
PubMed2004

The importance of shared environment in infant-father attachment: a behavioral genetic study of the attachment q-sort.

In this first behavior genetic study on infant-father attachment, we estimated genetic and environmental influences on infant-father attachment behaviors and on temperamental dependency, both assessed with the Attachment Q-Sort (AQS; B. E. Vaughn & E. Waters, 1990; E. Waters, 1995). Mothers of mono- and dizygotic twins (N = 56 pairs) sorted the AQS with a focus on the infant's behaviors in the presence of the father. Genetic modeling showed that attachment was largely explained by shared environmental (59%) and unique environmental (41%) factors. For dependency, genetic factors explained 66% of the variance, and unique environmental factors including measurement error explained 34%. Attachment to father appears to be, to a significant degree, a function of the environment that twins share.

Adult↗