Anita McConaghy Biol 1020 P6
There is a growing public concern with relation to teenagers and anti social and criminal behaviour but no one has ever pin pointed the cause. Some blame bad parenting or insecure environments but recent advances in molecular genetics and cognitive research are introducing a different perspective into the mix. Researchers have begun to discover how social environments and genes inter relate producing changes in the brain that influence emotional control and violence in children.
In 2002 an exciting discovery was made from looking at the enzyme monoamine oxidase (MAO-A) which breaks down neurotransmitters including serotonin and is also a key molecule in the regulation of aggression. Under speculation was the interaction between MAO-A, criminality and abuse as a child; a known risk factor for future antisocial behaviour. Blood samples of 535 males were examined for their MAO-A variants; dividing them into high and low enzyme-activity groups, and grouped according to their mistreatment as a child. It was noticed that the variant of the MAO-A gene alone did not predict anything about future behaviour. When boys had the low-activity variant MAO-A and had also experienced childhood abuse they were three times as likely to be diagnosed with conduct disorder in adolescence and 10 times as likely to have been convicted of a violent crime in adulthood compared to the group not abused.
This can be explained by the emotional arousal and reactivity in children being heightened by both early abuse and the gene for low-activity MAO-A. With these recent advances, the tools are available to stem the number of violent teens, ultimately creating ease in society.
Article reference: Nipping teen crime in the bud
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg19826511.800-nipping-teen-crime-in-the-bud.html?full=true
10 April 2008 by Anna Gosline
New Scientist Magazine issue 2651.
