Transcript DNA and Gene Expression

The Future of Behavioural
Genetics
Quantitative Genetics
• More fine-grained cognitive abilities,
personality traits, disorders, childhood
origins
• Integrating genetics with neural imaging
• Development of new areas of health
psychology and aging
Driving Forces
• Traditional questions: whether and how much
genetic factors affect behaviour, disorders
• Now starting to get to the question of how
Molecular Genetics
• No longer looking for the gene for a trait
• Multiple genes (Quantitative trait loci),
interactions, epistasis, epigenesis
• Pathways between genes and behaviour
• Bottom-up functional genomics meeting
top-down behavioural genomics
• Genetic brain mapping
Nature, Nurture
• Now generally recognized to be nature and
nurture
• New technologies and public awareness,
e.g., home test kits, gene chips
• Societal effects
– Government, law, ethnic and cultural
organizations