Ethical Considerations In Research Into Genetic Influences On Behavior

Genetic research in Psychology must be treated with caution. The ethical problems may be seen in Twin Studies and other research. Since modern technology is constantly improving and getting more and more advanced, the research we could perform on the human brain become almost endless.

The twin study conducted in Minnesota was a study in 1990 of twins that was separated from birth, which would remove as much as possible of the factor of the environment playing a major role in creating similarities between the twins. They found out that it seems like genetics play an important role in shaping “our” behavior.

What we could question about this study and its results is the criticism of determinism.  It states that if science discovers a certain genetic cause of behavior, other people might be judged based on the genes, for potential jobs and people can be judged differently in court. For example someone can be judged if their parents were criminals. And other things that are can be questioned as unethical: Is it ethical to reunite twins that don’t even know about each other? When the twins get reunited they will know that they have always had a sibling they didn’t know about and that the research and the result of it could have a impact that could last for the rest of their life.

The determinist argument’s main assumption that employers and the government have access to the genetic records of the citizens, this can be questioned since even though psychological research possibly could discover concrete evidence that genetics influences our behavior, this wouldn’t really matter if people didn’t know their own genetic record. How could we be positive that people don’t look at their records and predict their own future and “outcome” of your life?

How I see it, the best argument against genetic influences behavior research is basically; what exactly is the practical use of it? The information can possibly be deadly if handled by the wrong persons. This is one of the reasons a psychologist must handle that the information about their participants remain confidential, and that the results and the meaning of it doesn’t become public. The main use of it has been helpful for psychologists and scientists to resolve the nature vs. nurture debate going on. Genetic information could actually be helpful in psychological treatment.    

Twin Studies

Even though twins have the exact same genes, their lives are different in many ways. In the study conducted the greater part of the twin couples, lived together, ate the same food and went to the same school for about the first 18 years of their lives. Every single twin got tested for diabetes, heart diseases and depression. In most cases, the genes that were “switched” on in one twin, were switched off in the other twin. The studies show that there is a 30% chance that if one twin has a heart disease, the other one will also have it. These results were found by looking at the differences between the twins, and not the similarities. A famine strikes, but you cannot instantly alter your genes. Epigenetic changes can allow you to produce/make children who are short or tall and whatever is best suited to the new conditions they will grow up and live in. These changes will last for at least two or three procreation, by which time you would hope the changes in the environment will have passed. It may not necessarily. If nothing else, the idea of epigenetic shifts explaining the differences found in twin behavior and illness.

Is Homicide Adaptive Behavior?

To think of homicide behavior as an adaptive behavior may sound crazy, but when you look into it, it becomes clear that there might be something to that. The ability to kill in the human brain must have been around from the start. We have most likely always killed animals for the food, but how can this change to suddenly kill your own species? It has been proved with comparative psychology that other species engage in killing behavior within their own species.

The HAT (Homicide Adaptation Theory), which I believe is correct, states that; humans have evolved with some psychological adaptation for killing, that humans have been hunting/killing animals to survive for a long time if not since the “start”, and that there is a bigger chance for a human being to kill someone for our own chances of reproductive success.

Since we don’t have documents about psychological behavior from the early stages of Humans, the theory is hard to prove, but there has been studies that show clear evidence that the HAT might be right. The adaptation for homicide on spouses was described like this by Shackelford:

“Many spousal homicides results from evolved male mechanisms specifically designed by natural selection to motivate killing under certain circumstances”

A growing number of psychologists have evidence that to understand the reason for killing, we have to study the human brain, genes and evolution. Some psychologists say that murderous actions are usually the by-product of urges towards other goals, and that the purpose of killing is that humans want to have a higher status and greater reproductive success.

There are also many psychologists that believe that; a key condition for an evolutionary account of homicide is an explanation of the fact that most deadly violence is committed by men. Psychologists say that this is because men have evolved to compete more intensively than women in the race for status, material wealth and sexual partners. This competitive homicidal behavior is at its most combustible in men of low socioeconomic status in regions of high social inequality, suffused with a sense of everything to gain and little to lose.

Consciousness

Consciousness

The conscious mind is the part of your mind you are aware of. The part of your mind that YOU control and can make your own thoughts, actions and the things we do with absolute full intention, while the unconscious mind is the part of your mind that do things automatically without you thinking about it or controlling it, like breathing heart breath and sometimes anticipation. What actually can happen is that these two “minds” can “overlap” and actions and thoughts become automatic and just happens all by itself, it’s like you’re not present, your thoughts just goes wandering off without you. With this in your thoughts you can ask yourselves “Do we actually do anything fully conscious?”

                I think that we actually do things fully conscious and aware of it. If you think about one action you would like to perform like “Pick up that object”. And you perform that task. But not every single task is done fully consciously. Because according to many studies previous experiences can affect the choices your unconscious mind makes. If you have done something many many times, it becomes a almost automatic thought or action. For example if you are a football goalkeeper and you are used to catch footballs, this can turn into an almost automatic action, for example if a ball is flying towards you it can take milliseconds before you even realize that a ball is flying towards you, but before you even think about blocking the ball your unconscious mind has already started the movement to bring your hands up and block the ball. So I think that to a certain degree your conscious actions and thoughts are controlled and chosen by your conscious mind. Not always but sometimes on a rare occasion it happens.

                Another thing I think happens “by itself” to a certain degree without your conscious mind influencing is who you are and what makes you, you, like; your personality, the choices you make behavior and thoughts. I think that who you really are can’t be influenced by your conscious mind, you can pretend and occur as another person in front of others, but I don’t think you can change your personality, it’s like it’s always there but you are not aware of it, it’s in your unconscious mind all the time. But one thing I think you actually can decide yourselves is the choices you make. Some choices are harder than others to make, because of your personality. But it’s still possible to make the choice with your “conscious mind” the part of your mind that you are currently in control of, and I think you are directly in control of. What I think is that your behavior is something that is a part of both your conscious and unconscious mind, it’s like a crossover between these two. You don’t always think about how you are behaving, your unconscious mind does it for you, but sometimes when you need to you can control it yourselves. The thoughts in your head is something I think also must be a crossover, for example; you get the first impression of a new person you just met automatic from your unconscious mind and you can also think about specific things that you would like to think about.

So some thoughts and actions are made by your unconscious mind, and some are made consciously. And some things can be “done” with your unconscious mind purely trough earlier experiences, and some are a crossover of both the conscious mind and the unconscious.  

Brain scanning Technology

How does the brain work? The brain controls your body by sending out signals through the nerve-system. It controls a lot of things at the same time like; body temperature, blood pressure and heart rate. The brain collect, process and stores information about what is going around you, it collects the info through seeing, hearing, smelling, touching and tasting. The brain handless physical movement such as walking, talking and standing. It also allows you to think, dream and express emotions. If you get Alzheimer’s disease all of these tasks that the brain does on a daily basis get’s hard for the brain to conduct. The Alzheimer’s disease makes it harder for the brain to access memories and perform tasks. The disease does not have a cure, and we do not know what the cause of Alzheimer’s is but it is possible to spot the disease through brain imaging technology.

fMRI

The fMRI (functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging) takes advantage of the fact that when neurons are active more blood is sent to that area. The fMRI can detect metabolic changes which indicate brain activity. The fMRI computer creates images, which are put together to a video. The strengths of fMRI is that it can create a map of the brain that shows brain activity in real time, it’s easy to use and that is why it’s often used to detect symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease. The weakness with fMRI is that the machine is very expensive to buy and operate, and for the fMRI to work properly the subject must lie completely still. The fMRI can be used to detect symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease before the patient suffers from severe memory loss and problems performing tasks. Therefore fMRI can contribute to detect Alzheimer’s so the disease can be slowed down as soon as possible. The fMRI is used to localize brain activity and functions of the brain by comparing damage on the brain and what cognitive functions are malfunctioning.

The fMRI is not only used as a tool to spot and detect Alzheimer’s, in the case study of “The effects of meditation on the brain” where people with different skill level in meditation tried to concentrate while being interrupted, showed us that the fMRI is a excellent tool to see what part of the brain does what in real time. In the case study we learned that the experienced test subjects had less brain activity while concentrating.

PET

PET scan

The PET scan (Positron Emission Tomography scan), works by injecting a radioactive substance into the patient brain. The brain metabolize the substance at different rates whether the different parts of the brain is active. The gamma rays that are produced is detected and turned into an image. PET scans are good for showing a dynamic image. PET scans can be used to spot Alzheimer’s disease, and that means that it also can contribute to locate Alzheimer’s disease so the patients can get medicines to slow it down. The weakness with PET scans is that it is not as precise as fMRI, and the fact that you actually injected radioactive substance into the patient. PET scans can also evaluate cancer and blood flow.

As the fMRI the PET scan can be used too many different tasks, it was used during a study called “PET evaluation of bilingual language compensation following early childhood brain damage” where the brain of a kid that was raised by deaf parents and had a brain damage was studied. With the help of the PET scan, scientists were able to compare the boy’s brain to healthy average kids. The scan revealed the areas of the brain that were undeveloped and where the brain damage were located, and the area that was underdeveloped was the area of the brain where language is “stored”.

Case Studies

The effects of meditation on the brain.

-          Aim: Examine differences in brain activity that might have resulted from having engaged in meditation over a long period of time.

-          Participants: -12 experienced meditators 7/12 were Asian.

                        - Untrained Caucasian that was interested in trying to learn meditation.

                        - Control group

-          Procedure: The participant’s brains were scanned using fMRI while they concentrated on a red dot on a screen in front of them, and while at rest with no concentration. Researchers played various noises in an attempt to distract participants from meditation.

-          Results: During meditation, attention related networks in the brain and the visual cortex would be more active, than during rest periods. Novice meditators found it more difficult than experts to sustain their concentration. Experienced meditators showed a response to the disturbing stimuli, not in terms of a change in attention away from the target of their concentration meditation, but in terms of some kind of adjustment of concentration, perhaps an active resistance to being disrupted.

-          Conclusion: The experienced meditators showed response to the disturbing stimuli, not in terms of a change in attention away from the target of their concentration meditation, but in terms of some kind of adjustment of concentration, perhaps an active resistance to being disrupted. The differences are probably due to neuroplasticity, some kind of changes in the brain that have occurred over time as a result of periods of sustained meditation.

Changes in the brain after juggling training.

-          Aim: Determine whether both functional and structural changes could be detected in the human brain as a result of learning a new motor skill.

-          Participants: - 21 females

                        -  3 males

-          Procedure: Half of the participants had 3 months to learn a basic juggling routine. Structural MRI scans were done before and after the three months, and a third scan was made 3 months later. During this time participants did not practice their skills.

-          Result: While there was no significant group differences in brain structure in the first scan (before training), two areas of the brain were significantly different in size after training. The difference became smaller in the third scan, when practice had ceased for three months. These differences were apparently due to an increase in volume in the two regions of the juggler’s brain.  

-          Conclusion: The practice of watching balls moving through the air repetitively and learning to move in response to this strengthened the connections between neurons in the parts of the brain responsible for this activity.

Changes in the brains of experienced London taxi drivers.

-          Aim: Determine if fully London Taxi drivers have structural differences in their hippocampi as a result of being “on the knowledge”

-           Participants: Fully licensed London Taxi drivers, with a range of experience years.

                        

-          Procedure:  The researchers used MRI scans of the brains of the Taxi drivers and compared them to scans of healthy males who did not drive Taxis.

-          Result: Researchers found that both the left and right hippocampi were significantly higher in volume in the brains of the Taxi drivers, although there were some parts of the Hippocampi that were smaller in the brain of Taxi drivers. He researchers found a positive correlation that could not be accounted for by age differences.

-           Conclusion: There has probably been a redistribution of grey matter in the hippocampi as a result of intense development and use of spatial memory skills, specifically those relating to learning and remembering routes through the city.

PET evaluation of bilingual language compensation following early childhood brain damage.

-          Aim: Can the fact that both of your parents are deaf and that you have to use sign language from a young age, can this might have had something to do with his ability to speak despite brain damage.

-          Participants: Subject “MA” who suffered a lesion on the left frontal lobe at the age of 6 weeks.              

                        -  12 control subjects who were fluent in sign language.

-          Procedure: The researchers compared MA and 12 other control patients, using PET scan they compared them while the participants produced narrative speech or signs. The participants also had to do perform a set of motor control tasks.

-          Result: The researchers found that MA’s right hemisphere was more active than control subjects’ during the production of both speech and sign language. MA seemed more anxious and agitated. He was judged normal by independent observers of speech and sign language production and neuropsychological tests. These findings suggest that language function seems to have developed in the right hemisphere instead of the left hemisphere as a form as adaption.

-          Conclusion: MA’s language abilities may have developed in the right hemisphere at the expense of visuo-spatial ability.