Genes and behaviour: cognitive abilities and disabilities in normal populations

doi:10.1017/CBO9780511550072.002

1 - Genes and behaviour: cognitive abilities and disabilities in normal populations

from Part I - Genes and behaviour

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 19 January 2010

Robert Plomin

Edited by

Maria A. Ron and

Trevor W. Robbins

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Robert Plomin: Affiliation:
Institute of Psychiatry, King's College, London, UK
Maria A. Ron: Affiliation:
Institute of Neurology, London
Trevor W. Robbins: Affiliation:
University of Cambridge

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Summary

Introduction

During the past three decades, the behavioural sciences have emerged from an era of strict environmental explanations for differences in behaviour to a more balanced view that recognizes the importance of nature (genetics) as well as nurture (environment). This shift occurred first for behavioural disorders, including rare disorders such as autism (0.001 incidence), more common disorders such as schizophrenia (0.01), and very common disorders such as reading disability (0.05). More recently it has become increasingly accepted that genetic variation contributes importantly to differences among individuals in the normal range of variability as well as for abnormal behaviour. Moreover, many behavioural disorders, especially common ones, may represent the quantitative extreme of the same genetic and environmental factors responsible for variation in the normal range. That is, genetic influence on disorders such as reading disability may not be due to genes specific to the disorder but rather to genes that contribute to the normal range of individual differences in reading ability. This view, known as the quantitative trait locus (QTL) perspective, has important conceptual implications because it implies that some common disorders may not be disorders at all but rather the extremes of normal distributions. This QTL perspective has far-reaching implications for molecular genetics and for neuroscience. If many genes of small effect are involved, it will be much more difficult to find them. It will also be much more difficult to explore the brain mechanisms that mediate genetic effects on behaviour.

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Type: Chapter
Information: Disorders of Brain and Mind , pp. 3 - 29

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511550072.002 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2003

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