The answer is difficult without a minor course in biology so I'll try to simplify.

You know the body is controlled by chemicals. Chemicals pass messages from nerve to nerve. They supply the energy for muscles to act. Everything we do, say, or think is controlled by chemicals.

But the production and release of chemicals is controlled by genes.

The article says That version of the gene weakens the effect of a signalling chemical in the brain that helps control certain emotions.

So this gene has some affect on a chemical, release, production, maybe produces and anti-chemical, of that chemical, it doesn't say how. And lower levels of that chemical make the anxiety response stronger.

I know that's a major oversimplification but I hope it helps.

Dutch, you know how on the movie "Fried Green Tomatoes" there was the phrase, "It's all in the sauce." Well with humans, "It's all in the brain" and as brain research expands we will be amazed at how much is in the brain and our genetic code. Hopefully people will listen to it and not poopoo it like some do with science based discoveries. This research is just one of many that they are finding. Fascinating stuff!

Dutch, you should read Michael Crichton's last novel. The title is "Next". It probably gives a much easier to understand overview of genes than any other text you may find. It's also a fun read and delves into the legal ramifications of this particular branch of science.

I'm sorry. I guess I mis-spoke (or mis-wrote, misposted, whatever). I understand how genes work, more or less, and the same for brain signaling.

I should have said I find it amazing how something as basic as the level of production of a protein (which is what genes ultimately control) can bubble up through the various levels of biological organization to manifest as such a high level behavior as whether you want to rent "Saw IV" this weekend.

I read something else a while back where it was claimed that researchers had found a genetic marker that predicted to some degree whether you would be conservative or liberal. Wow. That's high-level behavior.

I could just as well have posted this in the Spirituality and Consciousness Group. To me, it raises some really interesting -- and frankly, disturbing -- questions about Free Will, moral responsibility, etc. Just how much of who we are is determined at birth?

Dutch

My kids must have one copy of that gene- they laugh at all the gore while I run from the room.

I've noticed that there is another bio-chem factor involved that appears to affect anxiety, i.e. some hormones. One of my "brave" kids had to take supplement hormones and was generally calmer and less anxious while taking them. Does this mean that there is a gene that was not directing the required hormone production? Is medical science able to treat the gene rather than adding the missing substance that the body needs?

So to what extent are these 100+ page discussions in the political or religious groups just gene variants tussling for dominance ala Dawkin's The Selfish Gene?

Dutch

Answers: Probably, and not yet.

And I'm not sure how I feel about the prospect of engineering that sort of thing. Fix Huntington's? Sure. Scizophrenia(sp)? Depends on what the collateral damage is. How much of what we call "creativity" is a manifestation of borderline mental illness?

Dutch