making fierce mice nice

this experiment is one step on the road to discovering the extent of the biology's influence on pathological behavior, so it's worth a mention...

mice without a particular neural receptor display pathologically violent behavior, even killing their mates. this indicates that some kinds of violent behavior in normal mice are related to this receptor, whose presence and activity is genetically regulated.

scientists recently created mice with a human form of this receptor. although they lacked their species' receptor, just as the above mice did, they acted normally. this illustrates that the human receptor serves a homologous function, pinpointing one locus that relates to violent behavior in humans. moreover, it suggests that some pathological behaviors in humans may be linked to the gene for this receptor, a gene that has already been linked, i believe, to other abnormal behaviors such as those categorized under bi-polar disorder.

Labels: well being