Our Genes, Our Choices
How Genotype and Gene Interactions Affect Behavior

An engaging, interdisciplinary discussion on how genetics influences neurodevelopmental sequences and human behavior

David Goldman (Author)

9780443221613, Elsevier Science

Paperback / softback, published 8 September 2023

326 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 2 cm, 0.45 kg

Our Genes, Our Choices: How Genotype and Gene Interactions Affect Behavior, Second Edition explains how the complexity of human behavior, including concepts of free will, derives from a relatively small number of genes, which direct neurodevelopmental sequences. Are people free to make choices or do genes determine behavior? Paradoxically, the answer to both questions is "yes," because of neurogenetic individuality, a new theory with profound implications. Here, author David Goldman uses judicial, political, medical, and ethical examples to illustrate that this lifelong process is guided by individual genotype, molecular and physiologic principles, as well as by randomness and environmental exposures. Written in an authoritative yet accessible style, the book includes practical descriptions of the function of DNA, discusses the scientific and historical bases of genethics, and introduces the topics of epigenetics and the predictive power of behavioral genetics.

1. Introduction: Thou Mayest Choose
2. The Jinn in the Genome
3. 2B or Not 2B?
4. Stephen Mobley and His X-Chromosome
5. Dial Multifactorial for Murder: The Intersection of Genes and Culture
6. Distorted Capacity: The Measure of the Impaired Will 
7. Distorted Capacity: Neuropsychiatric Diseases and the Impaired Will
8. Inheritance of Behavior and Genes “For? Behavior
9.  The Scientific and Historic Bases of Genethics
10. The World is Double Helical: DNA, RNA and Proteins, in a Few Easy Piece
11.The Stochastic Brain: From DNA Blueprint to Behavior
12. Reintroducing Genes and Behavior
13. Warriors and Worriers
14. How Many Genes Does it Take to Make a Behavior?
15. The Genesis and Genetics of Sexual Behavior
16. Gene by Environment Interaction
17. The Epigenetic Revolution
18.Time out for free will
19. The top-down neurogenesis of free will 
20. Summing Up Genetic Predictors of Behavior

Subject Areas: DNA & Genome [PSAK1], Genetics [non-medical PSAK]