Do Your Genes Tilt You Toward Thrill-Seeking?

Scientists have found a dozen mutations associated with the urge to do exciting things

THURSDAY, Oct. 7 (HealthDay News) — Do your genes predispose you to thrill-seeking?

Scientists looking into this question have found a dozen gene mutations associated with the urge to do exciting things.

This urge, called “sensation seeking” by researchers, has been linked to the neurotransmitter dopamine, a chemical that carries messages in the brain. In research that involved 635 people enrolled in a study on addiction, the scientists looked at 273 genetic mutations — involving a change in just one letter of the DNA — known to occur in eight genes with roles related to dopamine.

That number was eventually narrowed down to a dozen potentially important mutations. When those 12 gene variants were combined, they explained just under 4 percent of the difference between people who are sensation seekers and those who are not. This may not seem like much but it is “quite large for a genetic study,” according to study first author Jaime Derringer, a doctoral student at the University of Minnesota.

However, she added, it’s too early to start screening people for these mutations because not enough is known about how genes affect behavior.

While sensation seeking has been linked to a range of behavior disorders, such as drug addiction, it can be a positive trait.

“Not everyone who’s high on sensation-seeking becomes a drug addict. They may become an Army Ranger or an artist. It’s all in how you channel it,” Derringer said.

The study appears in the current issue of the journal Psychological Science.

 

New National Library of Medicine Website Spotlights Murder Pamphlets

This pamphlet tells the story of the 1881 discovery of the body of Jennie Cramer, a 20-year-old society girl, by fishermen along the Connecticut shore.

From  the announcement

A new website, “Most Horrible & Shocking Murders: Murder pamphlets in the collection of the National Library of Medicine,” has been launched by the National Library of Medicine (NLM), the world’s largest medical library. The site features a selection of murder pamphlets from the late 1600s to the late 1800s-from a treasure trove of several hundred owned by the Library.

Ever since the invention of movable type in the mid-1400s, public appetite for tales of shocking murders-“true crime”-has been one of the most durable facts of the market for printed material. For more than five centuries, murder pamphlets have been hawked on street corners, town squares, taverns, coffeehouses, news stands, and bookshops.

These pamphlets have been a rich source for historians of medicine, crime novelists, and cultural historians, who mine them for evidence to illuminate the history of class, gender, race, the law, the city, crime, religion and other topics. The murder pamphlets in the NLM’s collection address cases connected to forensic medicine, especially cases in which doctors were accused of committing-or were the victims of-murder.

The website (http://www.nlm.nih.gov/exhibition/murderpamphlets/index.html), based on a 2008 exhibition at the NLM, is curated by Michael Sappol, PhD, historian in the NLM’s History of Medicine Division.

 

Editor Janice Flahiff’s thoughts…
Wondering if there are any online exhibitions of current or past telling of moving stories of peacemaking efforts at local, national, or international levels…surely peacemaking leads to healing at many levels…and is a  preventative…for many ills
Well, with 12+ years as a librarian, I think I just may do some focused searching…..

As an aside, here in Toledo, we dismantled Arlington Midwest, which was on display on the county courthouse grounds this past week. Spent about 10 hours this past week there at our information booth. Many good observations and stories by “visitors”, even those I respectfully disagreed with…..