Your Momma Should Have Known

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Your Momma Should Have Known

"Our brains develop according to a recipe encoded in our genes...The sequence of DNA in those

genes is pretty much fixed. For experiences to produce long-term changes in how we behave,

they must be somehow able to reach into our brains and alter how those genes work."

- Carl Zimmer

Nothing against your mother. The point is that your mother and everyone's

mother should have been taught what you are about to learn, before youwere born. The news is recent, but the information itself has been around

since the beginning of our existence.

Caution: What you are about to learn may change what you think about life

and how you understand the sometimes mysterious behaviour of others. Youwon't be asked to convert to any way of thinking. It will simply help you to

understand.

Human behaviour, or human nature if you will, may present the greatest

mystery and challenge anyone has ever faced. For examples, men ask "Whatdo women want?" while women wonder "What makes men tick?" Neither is a

huge mystery, it's just that we haven't taught each other what a few of usalready know.

The study you will read about could not have been conducted on humans. Atleast not on living ones. You will soon understand why. It was conducted on

rats. And on the brains of people who had recently died, some from suicide.

Just to make it more enticing, love has a great deal to do with it.

In humans, love is a mystery. The word has more definitions than just aboutany other in the Oxford English Dictionary. The problem is that we can't get

a handle on exactly what love is. Yet, in our own lives, we tend to quantifylove. We don't measure love as such. We measure loving touch.

In general, we touch those we love more than those we don't love. When theromance of the early months of a new relationship filled with lots of loving

touch fades and the touching reduces to little or nothing, we say that lovewas lost. People leave legal relationships seeking more and better love, but

what they really seek is more loving touch. We tend to equate touch with

love. We measure how much others love us by the amount they want toshare loving touch with us.

Not so easy to test in a science lab. Especially when ethics intervenes when

we want to prove that people change for the negative when they lacksufficient touch of others. Many labs have turned to rats as substitutes. The



similarities between us and rats in these tests may make you uncomfortable,but they are real.

In one family of rats the mother was allowed to lick the fur of her babies,

often and extensively. In another, the mother hardly licked her babies at all.

As adults, the two groups of rats turn out very different. In the neglectedgroup, the rats were easily startled by unexpected noises, they were

reluctant to explore new places and their bodies produced lots of hormonewhen they experienced stress.

The licked and loved rats were not easily startled, showed great curiosity inexploring new places in their environment. And they "did not suffer surges of

stress hormones," according to Carl Zimmer.

They did not suffer surges of stress hormones. I do. Like many others, I lack

the gene that should cause my adrenal gland to produce a hormone thatneutralizes the effects of epinephrin (commonly known as adrenalin), the

chemical produced by the adrenal gland to prepare us for action in times of sudden stress, known as the fight or flight response. In other words, when

my body senses stress, I not only get the surge of adrenalin but it hangsaround in my bloodstream for hours, even for days.

Why do some people suffer severely from stress--even to the point of thinking about or actually committing suicide--while others seem able to

handle stress with relative ease? The rats in the experiment above and inhundreds of other labs may show us the answer. The rats--and at least some

of us--may not be able to handle stress as well as others because our brainsand bodies are not prepared for what amounts to prolonged chemicalwarfare on us. Self-induced chemical warfare.

Two families of molecules control when our genes turn on and off, which

ones and for how long. One, the methyl group, essentially plugs the path for

genes to express themselves by producing proteins. The other, coilingproteins, wraps our DNA into spools so tight the genes can't become active.

If either is too successful or lacking, something can happen with geneexpression (or may be prevented from happening) that will affect our health

and even our lives.

Our experiences can rewrite these two, collectively called the epigenetic

code. Most of the writing or behaviour patterning is done before we areborn. However, strong experiences after we are born--even extraordinarily

strong experiences as adults--can rewrite the code.

Differences between the brain of the licked rats and the neglected ones were



found in the hippocampus. The glucocorticoid receptor gene--the one thatcontrols how long adrenalin stays in the bloodstream--for example, was

capped off by methyl groups in the neglected rats and they had fewerreceptors than the licked rats. Thus the neglected rats had fewer ways to

stop adrenalin from doing its thing when it was no longer needed. They were

permanently stressed out.

Neurobiologist Michael Meaney, of McGill University, and colleagues followedhis rat studies by studying the brains of people who had recently died.

Twelve had committed suicide and had suffered abuse as children, 12 had

committed suicide but had not suffered abuse and the final 12 had died of natural causes. The suicide people who had suffered abuse had cortisol

receptors capped by methyl groups and had fewer receptors, as they hadfound with the rats. Abuse in childhood had caused them to be permanently

stressed as adults.

Another group studied suicide victims and people who died natural deaths

and found methyl groups blocking the gene that produces the protein BDNFin the Wernicke area of the brains of the suicides. Environmental

influences--everything after birth, including human interaction--can alsoaffect adults.

Neuroscientist Eric Nestler, of Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New YorkCity, examined the brains of mice that had been put through so much stress

in conflicts with other mice that they were depressed. He found differencesin an area of the brain called the nucleus accumbens, which is involved with

the brain's reward system and helps to set values on things based on thepleasure derived from them. He found the DNA in that part wound tightlywith coiling proteins. Nestler's group found the same kinds of epigenetic

changes in the brains of depressed humans who had recently died.

Brain changes caused by coiling proteins and methyl groups should be able

to be reversed, once we learn how. Nestler injected HDAC inhibitors into thenucleus accumbens parts of the brains of depressed mice to loosen the coils

of DNA. Ten days later the mice were less hesitant about approaching othermice and other signs of depression were absent.

These studies suggest that previously intractable human troubles such asdepression, suicide and a wide range of problems associated with constant

stress (including those that impact the immune system) may be correctable.More study is needed and testing on humans will be tricky, maybe even

risky at first.

Any change to the brain is risky. But it may be do-able. Medical science is



still in the very early stages of learning about our most complex andsophisticated organ.

Soon taking a DNA sample of a newborn baby will be routine. The sample

will be examined for variations from expected norms so the child can have a

genetic adjustment made and avoid genetic problems and weaknesses thatare an unfortunate part of life today.

Bill Allin is the author of Turning it Around: Causes and Cures for

Today's Epidemic Social Problems, a guidebook for teachers and parents

who want to grow healthy children right from birth. This book shows us how.Learn more at http://billallin.com

[Primary source: The Brain, by Carl Zimmer, Discover , June 2010]

http://billallin.com/

http://billallin.com/

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Your Momma Should Have Known