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Genes, environment and I.Q. Login/Join
 
<w.c.>
posted
The new field of epigenetics is finally beginning to make inroads re: the obsolete notion which treated genes and environmental influences as separate, competing domains. Here's a recent study which challenges some of the findings of authors of "The Bell Curve."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/...03Sep1¬Found=true

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"It is an old and politically sensitive question, and one that has long fueled claims of racism. As highlighted in the controversial 1994 book "The Bell Curve," studies have repeatedly found that people's genes -- and not their environment -- explain most of the differences in IQ among individuals. That has led a few scholars to advance the hotly disputed notion that minorities' lower scores are evidence of genetic inferiority."

"Now a groundbreaking study of the interaction among genes, environment and IQ finds that the influence of genes on intelligence is dependent on class. Genes do explain the vast majority of IQ differences among children in wealthier families, the new work shows. But environmental factors -- not genetic deficits -- explain IQ differences among poor minorities."

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The only thing missing from this study, which Sandra Scarr, a mainstay of the behavior genetic camp fails to acknowledge, is the way acquired characteristics are passed on between generations. I've shared the research on this piece studied exstensively by Michael J. Meaney, which is receiving much needed attention around the world, where the data is being reproduced again and again. This means that in the middle and upper middle class families environment is indeed having a significant impact on I.Q., except that the idea of experential affects being acquired isn't acknowledged as one mechanism accounting for higher I.Q. stabliity across generations. IOW, genetic potential is still an epigenetic phenomenon, but to measure it among the wealthy one would have to control for more stable factors across generations.

Phil:

Where is that thread I started on Genes and Environment?
 
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<w.c.>
posted
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/en...=15574496&query_hl=4


Here's research showing how caregiver stress damages DNA. Follow-up studies will look at meditation, yoga, psychotherapy, to see if/to what extent, losses can be prevented or damage repaired.
 
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