week 2 Flashcards
question: what was found by Jorde (2004) about genes and race?
- indiv. from diff. continents are more similar than indiv. from same continent
- suggests race is less biological and more socially constructed based on visual similarities
question: why might sickle cell anemia but good vs bad?
GOOD
- protective trait against malaria
- het. indiv. for sickle cell anemia has higher survival rates
⤷ only in areas of higher risk malaria
- no benefit in areas with lower risk
BAD
- sickle shape = harder to pass capillaries -> blocks WBC passage
explain: sickle cell anemia and down syndrome (gene-wise)
SICKLE
- recessive
- het. indiv. usually asymptomatic
DOWN
- trisomy 21
- mental and motor delays
define: evolution
- process of change in gene freq. over many generation
- proposed by Darwin in 1859
define: nat. sel.
- envrt. conditions allow some members of a species to survive and pass on their genes to progeny while others do not
explain: peppered moths as an ex. of nat. sel.
- pre-industrial rev. = mostly white
- post-industrial rev/ = mostly black
- caused by diff. alleles -> diff. pheno.
**white moths did not become black
⤷ black moths survived in the ashy trees so they were able to pass on their genes
question: what are conditions for evolution to be considered evolution?
- trait affects survival
- affects on a population scale, not indiv.
- hereditary
question: what is the false assumption surrounding genes and envrt.?
FALSE = genes selected by evol. pressies depend on the envrt. in which ancestors were living
- in reality: envrt. controls gene exp.
define: polygenic inheritance
- activity of many genes influencing one trait
- case for most psychological traits
- leads to normal distribution on graph
explain: evolutionary theory in dev.
- the selected traits may be maximally adaptive at that certain stage of dev.
- ex.
⤷ infants: poor vis. acuity
⤷ toddlers: increased clinginess
⤷ adolescence: risk-taking - don’t want infants with too many presets or else wouldn’t be plastic enough to change and survive
⤷ also want them to be useless so parents take care of infant - puberty happens in adolescence -> looking for sexual partners
⤷ don’t take risks and -> stay close to family -> incest
question: what is the relationship between envrt. variability and hereditability?
- greater variability -> less hereditability
- more possibilities for differences in indiv. to be explained by envrt. instead of genes
define: epigenesis
- functional change in the genome that does not involve an alteration in DNA seq.
explain: good and bad mothering rats
- good = high grooming (HG)
= bad = low grooming (LG) -> no tactile stim. - HG have offspring w/ less stress resp. and become HG themselves
- did cross-fostering study
⤷ swapped babies - HG mom’s adopted babies turned out good
- suggests its based on the envrt., not genetics
question: what is the genetic mechanism for less stress in HG rat moms?
- methylation
⤷ silences gene that creates receptors -> poor stress regulation - yes methyl = stressed
- no methyl = better stress management
question: what was seen genetically between pups of HG and LG rat moms?
- at birth, methylation = equal
- day 6: demethylation occurred in HG pups
question: what happened to LG pups that were handled by humans?
- still demethylated
- means any sort of tactile stim. helps demethylate
name: types of environment effects on dev. (3)
- passive
- evocative
- active
define: types of environment effects on dev. (3)
-
passive
- parents provide envrt. that impacts dev.
- ex. born into rich family -
evocative
- child elicits resp. from others -> changing their geno. based on envrt. from others
- ex. always crying -> everyone avoids -> grows up in unhappy envrt. -
active
- child’s geno. influences the envrt.s they seek
- ex. choosing no more soccer
⤷ child’s genes (from parents) chose no more soccer
question: do babies who were breastfed have higher IQs?
- yes
- has fatty acids that foster brain dev.
- Mortensen 2002
question: what was found by Cap (2007) about breastfeeding?
- gene on chromo. in volved in processing fatty acids has 2 alleles C and G
- CC and CG breastfed = higher IQ than bottle fed
- GG breastfed = no diff.
CONCLUSION: not entirely envrt., some genetics
define: conduct disorder
- children and adolescents wo consistently break rules or violate the rights of others
- emerge at 8 yrs
- more common in boys
name: symptoms of conduct disorder
- difficulty with self regulation
- at risk for dev. antisoc. disorder
- lying
- stealing
- fire-setting
- cruelty to animals
- fighting
name: possible causes of conduct disorder
- family stress
- antisocial family members
- inconsistent discipline
- maltreatment
⤷ but not all maltreated children had conduct disorder
explain: treatment for conduct disorder
- cognitive-behavioural therapy
- important to both face consequences for bad beha. and reward good beha.
- family-oriented treatment = more effective
explain: genetic explanation for conduct disorder
- MAOA enzyme deletion increases aggression
- altered neurotransmitters = associated with aggression
⤷ and MAOOA metabolizes NT
name: steps of brain dev. (5)
- formation of neural tube
- neurogenesis
- migration
- differentiation + myelination
- cell and synaptic pruning
explain: steps of brain dev. (5)
-
formation of neural tube
- 18 - 24 days after conception
- neural plate folds -> tube
- failure to close -> birth defects ex. spina bifida -
neurogenesis
- 5 - 28 weeks after conception
- neurons form in one region of tube
- usually no more new neurons after birth
⤷ except hippocampus -
migration
- 7 mths
- neurons more to permanent locations via glial cells
- faulty migration -> neural disorders ex. epilepsy and cerebral palsy -
differentiation + myelination
- neurons get bigger and become specialized
fatty sheath protects axons
- myelination = from early in infancy -> early adulthood -
cell and synaptic pruning
- remove neurons and synapses not being used
- increases efficiency
define: teratogen
- agent that can potentially cause birth defect or harm to cog./beha. outcomes
- dep. on dose, genetic predisposition, time of exposure
question: how does time of exposure impact the effect of a teratogen?
- exposed earlier in dev. = more sensitive
- not as sensitive at 1 - 2 weeks because not enough has developed yet
explain: thalidomide on dev.
- used to be prescribed for morning sickness
- found to cause babies with deformities in arms, legs, hands, fingers
explain: alcohol on dev.
- can lead of fetal alcohol syndrome
⤷ slow growth, heart problems, characteristic facial features - physical brain damage occurs prenatally
⤷ causes permanent cog. deficits
explain: nicotine on dev.
- preterm births and low brth weight
- fetal and neonatal deaths
- respiratory problems
- increased risk for attention and learning deficits later
- second hand smoke also has an impact
question: what can fetuses hear (prenatal hearing)?
- charlie brown teacher muffly noise
- can perceive sound at 16 weeks gestation
question: does music and trying to promote bilingualism do anything with a fetus’ prenatal hearing?
- not really
- enough stim. from stomach to stim. brain dev.
- music gets filtered by embryonic fluid
⤷ kinda just becomes rhythm and some pitch changes - hard to hear detailed diff. in languages
question: how does having deaf parents impact hearing of child?
- no significant language delay
- 5 - 10 hours/week of exposure after birth is still sufficient
⤷ shows that prenatal exp. is not necessary
explain: carrot juice vs water study on prenatal tasting`
1 = carrot juice -> switch to water after birth
2 = water -> switch to carrot juice after birth
3 = water before and after birth
- infants exposed to carrot juice either prenatally or after birth:
⤷ showed less grimaces when eating carrot cereal - enjoyed carrot cereal more than regular
- no diff. in control group
