#274 Kevin Mitchell - Innate: How the Wiring of Our Brains Shapes Who We Are
RECORDED ON OCTOBER 16th, 2019.
Dr. Kevin Mitchell is Associate Professor of Genetics and Neuroscience at Trinity College Dublin. He is interested in the development of connectivity in the brain, specifically in how this process is controlled by genes and how mutations in such genes affect the connectivity of neuronal circuits, influence behavior and perception and contribute to disease. His research group uses genetic approaches in the mouse to address these questions, and they are also involved in collaborative research looking at the genetics and phenotypic manifestations of synaesthesia and schizophrenia in humans. He’s the author of a book that came out last year, Innate: How the Wiring of Our Brains Shapes Who We Are.
In this episode, we focus on Dr. Mitchell’s book, Innate. We first talk about how to square off human nature with individual variation, and how the genome does not encode a person, and is not the only source of innateness to psychological traits. We also discuss behavioral genetics, the “non-shared environment”, and the conclusions we can derive from polygenic scores. We then refer to how personality shapes the way we experience the world, neuroplasticity, and psychological epigenetics. Toward the end, we also talk about how difficult it is to study group differences, and where sex differences come from and if it makes sense to talk about a “male” and a “female” brain.
Time Links:
Thinking about human nature and individual variation
The genome does not encode a person
Probabilistic brain development
Behavioral genetics, and issues with the “non-shared environment”
The problem with Robert Plomin’s take on polygenic scores
Experiences are not things that just happen to us
Being careful about the neuroplasticity hype
Different decision-making parameters
Problems with research in psychological epigenetics
Studying group differences
Sex differences, and the “male” and “female” brain
Should we be more tolerant toward people different from us?
Follow Dr. Mitchell’s work!
Follow Dr. Mitchell’s work:
Faculty page: http://bit.ly/32qe0rS
Personal website: http://bit.ly/33Bpuc7
Wiring the Brain (blog): http://bit.ly/2MKhzCA
ResearchGate profile: http://bit.ly/2LVNCBJ
Twitter handle: @WiringTheBrain
Innate: How the Wiring of Our Brains Shapes Who We Are: https://amzn.to/33zDy60