Hooligans are born first, and then become?
Antisocial behavior was associated with Val66Met, 5-HTTLPR and MAOA-uVNTR genes
Scientists from Quebec have studied the genetic predisposition to antisocial behavior. It turned out that it is due to heredity and the influence of the environment. The authors published the results of their research in the International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology (Nilsson et al., Genotypes do not confer risk for delinquency but rather alter susceptibility to positive and negative environmental factors: Gene-environment interactions of BDNF Val66Met, 5-HTTLPR, and MAOA-uVNTR), and they can be found briefly on the website University of Montreal (Are you genetically predisposed to antisocial behavior?).
Scientists decided to understand the main factors influencing antisocial behavior. So, they were interested in the question of genetic predisposition to such behavior and the influence of the environment on it.
In their study, geneticists studied the influence of Val66Met, 5-HTTLPR, MAOA-uVNTR gene varieties on antisocial behavior, as well as environmental factors, in particular family ones.
Val66Met encodes the neurotropic factor of the brain — a protein responsible, in particular, for the stimulation and development of neurons. 5-HTTLPR is a gene responsible for regulating the serotonin transporter. The MAOA-uVNTR gene encodes monoamine oxidase, an enzyme involved in metabolism involving glutamate (one of the "excitatory amino acids").
The sample of scientists included 1,337 high school students aged 17 to 18 from the province of Vestmanland in Central Sweden. The children participated in an anonymous survey: they filled out questionnaires containing questions about participation in offenses, family conflicts, sexual violence, and relationships with parents. Also, each subject provided saliva samples, geneticists extracted DNA samples from it, which they studied.
It turned out that juvenile delinquency is associated with a special combination of genetic factors and the influence of environmental factors. For example, antisocial behavior was found by those who had varieties of the Val66Met, 5-HTTLPR and MAOA-uVNTR genes combined with family conflicts or sexual violence.
A study by scientists has shown how genes can affect the brain, changing its sensitivity to environmental factors (primarily family conflicts, sexual violence and relationships with parents).
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru17.12.2014