23
« on: December 08, 2013, 11:50:20 am »
Read this book the other day, and it raises some interesting questions. Some of you might be familiar with this, but I was not, so please enlighten
me if this has been proven wrong in some way.
In few words it says that research has shown that crime, violence and addictive behavior is not a social problem, but a biological one.
This researcher called Meaney started a series of studies on the biological impact of childhood trauma. He already knew of studies that showed that
victims of physical or sexual abuse are more likely to take their own lives as adults. He`d also read papers that described how childhood abuse can
damage a person`s ability to handle stress. These results could be explained away by emotional trauma, of course, but Meaney wanted to know if
any biology was involved. How does the toxic impact of childhood abuse live on in a person? Why does it cause some to commit suicide? The answer might be hidden in the brains of the suicide victims.
Meaney had his eye on one particular molecule. The glucocorticoid receptor is one of the basic building blocks of our stress response system. It is a
protein that helps us control the hormones that cause stress: the more we have of the receptor, the better we are able to respond to stressful
situations and vice versa.
Experiments have been done with rodents. By disrupting the maternal bond between a female rat and her young, researchers had already shown that poor parenting can cause young rats to have fewer glucocorticoid receptors. And when they grow up , those same rats coped badly with stress.
Could the same apply to humans?
When the analysis was complete, Meaney saw an intriguing pattern. For the most part, the brains of suicide victims had similar receptor levels to those of people who had died in accidents. But in the samples of victims of childhood abuse, receptor levels were lower, just as with the rats.
When he homed in on the cause of the difference, things got even more interesting. Meaney discovered that the gene for the receptor was covered
by a chemical blanket that effectively silenced it. Exactly the same silencing mechanism as seen in the rats that suffered poor maternal care. The
implication was significant: An abusive childhood might turn the volume down on this vital stress-response gene, leaving the abused vulnerable to stress and perhaps suicidal impulses, later in life.
His focus was suicide, but epigenetics is revealing that a slew of behaviours, from depression and other mental illnesses to aggression and perhaps
even crime , may be shaped by chemical imprints laid down in the cells of people who suffer traumatic childhoods.
If this is true, you inherit destructive behaviour. We have all seen the pattern where the father beats the child, because his father did it to him, and his father to him again and so on.
Thoughts on this?