Sinope Diogenes Are certain people born evil? - Research suggests not only that pervasive behavioral problems such as psychopathy and ADHD might not only have strong genetic predispositions, but may even have common genetic denominators... one characteristic of extroverts, psychopaths, and ASPDs is a low level of innate cortical arousal. For these individuals pleasure is hard to come by, doesn’t last for long, and comes from a lifestyle that involves moving on from one high risk activity to another. Now within the brain, pleasure is strongly associated with the neurotransmitter dopamine. It’s therefore no surprise that the gene in question, DRD4, codes for the dopamine receptor D4 in the brain. The normal version, or allele, of DRD4, called 4R, is associated with... It’s interesting that these two mutant gene variants, 7R and 2R, are estimated to have arisen about 50,000 and 10,000 years ago respectively, when early human populations were migrating out of Africa. Some have argued that an enhanced appetite for risk taking may have been beneficial at this stage, and that the downsides of a lack of self-control and poor mental concentration were relatively unimportant. In particular, there is some evidence that the 7R allele leads to better health in nomadic populations, and to poorer health in sedentary ones. But times have changed and in a modern society a lack of self-control, poor mental focus, impulsivity, risk taking, and an indifference to other people’s feelings does not serve a person well. So, the personality types that are pleasure-poor—the extrovert, psychopath, and ASPD—are in some sense the “opportunists that time forgot”.
Posted on: Fri, 16 May 2014 15:44:36 +0000
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