Almost always, genes are about potentials and vulnerabilities rather than about determinism. — Robert M. Sapolsky Copy Share Image
“Back to mutations. Can there be mutations in DNA stretches constituting promoters? Yes,” — Robert M. Sapolsky Copy Share Image
“If genes strongly influence average levels of a trait, that trait is strongly inherited. If genes strongly influence the extent of variability… — Robert M. Sapolsky Copy Share Image
Genes are important for understanding our behavior. Incredibly important - after all, they code for every protein pertinent to brain function, endocrinology,… — Robert M. Sapolsky Copy Share Image
The regulation of genes is often more interesting than the genes themselves, and it's the environment that regulates genes. — Robert M. Sapolsky Copy Share Image
“Consider this: the human genome codes for about 1,500 different TFs, contains 4,000,000 TF-binding sites, and the average cell uses about 200,000… — Robert M. Sapolsky Copy Share Image
“What’s a heritability score? “What does a gene do?” is at least two questions. How does a gene influence average levels of… — Robert M. Sapolsky Copy Share Image
“In other words, the more genomically complex the organism, the larger the percentage of the genome devoted to gene regulation by the… — Robert M. Sapolsky Copy Share Image
“Thus transcription factors regulate genes. What regulates transcription factors? The answer devastates the concept of genetic determinism: the environment.” — Robert M. Sapolsky Copy Share Image
Genes are rarely about inevitability, especially when it comes to humans, the brain, or behavior. They're about vulnerability, propensities, tendencies. — Robert M. Sapolsky Copy Share Image
“Our prototypical behavior has occurred. How was it influenced by events when the egg and sperm that formed that person joined, creating… — Robert M. Sapolsky Copy Share Image
“In the 1970s Allan Wilson and Mary-Claire King at Berkeley correctly theorized that the evolution of genes is less important than the… — Robert M. Sapolsky Copy Share Image
“Thus, for our purposes, genes aren’t about inevitability. Instead they’re about context-dependent tendencies, propensities, potentials, and vulnerabilities. All embedded in the fabric… — Robert M. Sapolsky Copy Share Image
“As you study the trait in more environments, the heritability score will decrease. This is recognized by Bouchard: “These conclusions [derived from… — Robert M. Sapolsky Copy Share Image
“EVOLUTION RESTS ON three steps: (a) certain biological traits are inherited by genetic means; (b) mutations and gene recombination produce variation in… — Robert M. Sapolsky Copy Share Image
“As emphasized in the last chapter, epigenetic changes can be multi-generational.8 Dogma was that all the epigenetic marks (i.e., changes in the… — Robert M. Sapolsky Copy Share Image
“The difference between survival and reproduction is shown with “antagonistic pleiotropy,” referring to traits that increase reproductive fitness early in life yet… — Robert M. Sapolsky Copy Share Image
“What is that 95 percent? Some is junk—remnants of pseudogenes inactivated by evolution.fn4,3 But buried in that are the keys to the… — Robert M. Sapolsky Copy Share Image
“Genes have plenty to do with behavior. Even more appropriately, all behavioral traits are affected to some degree by genetic variability.65 They… — Robert M. Sapolsky Copy Share Image
“Now consider a genome consisting of genes A and B, meaning three different transcription profiles—A is transcribed, B is transcribed, A and… — Robert M. Sapolsky Copy Share Image
“here’s a highly simplified version of the next chapter’s focus on genes: (a) each gene specifies the production of a specific type… — Robert M. Sapolsky Copy Share Image
“Study a gene in only one environment and, by definition, you’ve eliminated the ability to see if it works differently in other… — Robert M. Sapolsky Copy Share Image
“Secure-attachment 7Rs show more generosity than average. Thus 7R has something to do with generosity—but its effect is entirely context dependent.” — Robert M. Sapolsky Copy Share Image
But if you get chronically, psychosocially stressed, you're going to compromise your health. So, essentially, we've evolved to be smart enough to make ourselves… — Robert M. Sapolsky Copy Share Image
“Finally, for the same criminal conviction, the more stereotypically Af-rican a black individual’s facial features, the longer the sentence.15 In contrast, juries view black… — Robert M. Sapolsky Copy Share Image
“So testosterone does subtle things to behavior. Nonetheless, this doesn’t tell us much because everything can be interpreted every which way. Testosterone increases anxiety—you… — Robert M. Sapolsky Copy Share Image
“pain makes aggressive people more aggressive, while doing the opposite to unaggressive individuals.” — Robert M. Sapolsky Copy Share Image
“Thus, for our purposes, genes aren’t about inevitability. Instead they’re about context-dependent tendencies, propensities, potentials, and vulnerabilities. All embedded in the fabric of the… — Robert M. Sapolsky Copy Share Image
“If we accept that there will always be sides, it’s a nontrivial to-do list item to always be on the side of angels. Distrust… — Robert M. Sapolsky Copy Share Image
“In other words, the more genomically complex the organism, the larger the percentage of the genome devoted to gene regulation by the environment.” — Robert M. Sapolsky Copy Share Image
“The subject of one experiment is a rat that receives mild electric shocks (roughly equivalent to the static shock you might get from scuffing… — Robert M. Sapolsky Copy Share Image
“No brain region is an island, and the formation of circuits connecting far-flung brain regions is crucial—how else can the frontal cortex use its… — Robert M. Sapolsky Copy Share Image
“We process emotionally salient information more rapidly and automatically, but with less accuracy. Frontal function—working memory, impulse control, executive decision making, risk assessment, and… — Robert M. Sapolsky Copy Share Image
“Most broadly, the PFC chooses between conflicting options—Coke or Pepsi; blurting out what you really think or restraining yourself; pulling the trigger or not.… — Robert M. Sapolsky Copy Share Image
![“As you study the trait in more environments, the heritability score will decrease. This is recognized by Bouchard: “These conclusions [derived from a behavior genetics study] can be generalized, of course only to new populations exposed to a range of environments similar to those studied.”31” quote by Robert M. Sapolsky](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/511/robert-m-sapolsky-1166_education_as-you-study-the-trait-in-more-environme_396497.jpg)
