If you think about your DNA and its link to your behavior, you might believe it’s hardwired—that is, our DNA determines who we are and how we behave with others. In a review paper in the November 2008 issue of Science, authors Robinson, Fernald, and Clayton show that social information alters gene expression in the brain to influence behavior, and genetic variation influences brain function and social behavior.
ScienceDaily reports: “There is a dynamic relationship between genes and behavior,” Robinson said. “Behavior is not etched in the DNA.” (italics mine) On-going studies are revealing that social signals can have a profound effect on when and how genes function.
Speaking of an organism’s genes, its environment, the social information it receives, “all these things interact,” said Clayton. “Experience is constantly coming back in to the level of the DNA and twiddling the dials and the knobs.”
In other words, don’t blame your behavior totally on your genetic makeup.
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