Slashdot Mirror
Genetic Glitch May Prevent Kids From Learning From Their Mistakes
jamie pointed out an interesting piece being featured in Newsweek that claims a "genetic glitch" may prevent some kids from learning from their mistakes to the same degree as others. "If there is one thing experts on child development agree on, it is that kids learn best when they are allowed to make mistakes and feel the consequences. So Mom and Dad hold back as their toddler tries again and again to cram a round peg into a square hole. [...] But not, it seems, all kids. In about 30 percent, the coils of their DNA carry a glitch, one that leaves their brains with few dopamine receptors, molecules that act as docking ports for one of the neurochemicals that carry our thoughts and emotions. A paucity of dopamine receptors is linked to an inability to avoid self-destructive behavior such as illicit drug use. But the effects spill beyond such extremes. Children with the genetic variant are unable to learn from mistakes. No matter how many tests they blow by partying the night before, the lesson just doesn't sink in."
Sounds like ADD to me. I've got ADD and although I'm very intelligent, I haven't been an 'A' student since freshman year of high school. I can learn things well, but I continue the same behaviors that prevent me from succeeding, such as reading Slashdot (among other things) instead of doing homework.
I took Adderall in school, which I believe stimulates dopamine and does indeed make it easier to do my homework. Also makes me test positive for meth, tell jokes that don't make sense to anyone but myself, and sleep 5 hours per night.
I was going somewhere with this post, but as usual, I got distracted. Anyway, I hope this perspective can inform someone or at least make the other folks with ADD feel like they're not alone, even when so many people don't even think ADD is real.
No one claimed that they had learning figured out a genetic level. What they do claim is that they've pinpointed a gene that corresponds well with different behaviors. And it just so happens that this gene results in a reduction in dopamine tone. And there's been quite a bit of research showing that changes in dopamine tone result in changes in learning and memory (speaking as someone who's worked on a bit of that research).
And I'm going to go out on a limb and predict that producing a transgenic mouse that expresses the variation of the gene associated with "not learning with your mistakes" is going to result in behavioral differences in those animals that might just correspond to the behaviors they've described in humans.
And it's not like we don't already have any examples of a single gene resulting in pretty drastic behavioral and cognitive effects.
What we do know is that who we are is a combination of many genetic, epigenetic, and environmental factors. None of them fully explains who we are, but that doesn't mean that individual factors can't exert a strong force on who we are.
That's not entirely true. There was an abortion joke in Treehouse of Horror VII in the short "Citizen Kang." Kang and Kodos assume the identities of presidential candidates Bill Clinton and Bob Dole. While at a rally, under the guise of Bob Dole, the alien proclaims "Abortions for everyone!" which is met with boos from the crowd, he then proclaims "Abortions for no one!" which is also met with boos from the crowd. Finally he proclaims something along the lines of "Abortions for some, tiny American flags for others!" and is met with loud applause.