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A complex relationship
by Joseph D. McInerney
What to do next? How did I appear to this animal? Did I look like a threat? Did I
look like lunch? He certainly wasn't behaving in a menacing manner, but maybe he was
waiting for the right moment to express his breed's well-known, vicious disposition. One
of us had to do something, I figured, although reason, the pride of Homo sapiens, was
little comfort in the face of the evolutionary legacy of Canis familiaris: powerful jaws and
teeth adapted to gripping and tearing. I extended my hand slowly, and—he licked it. The
dog worked his way up to my face with a tongue as broad and soggy as a kitchen sponge,
and, as his owner appeared, I expressed my relief at seeing such friendly behavior from a
representative of so notorious a breed. The young man replied, "These dogs get a bad rap.
People say they're born mean. Look at Caesar, here. Ain't no dog born mean. You got to
teach them to be mean."
In their different ways, Caesar and his human friend raised long-standing
questions about the roots of animal behavior, including behavior in our own species. Are
behaviors inbred, written indelibly in our genes as immutable biological imperatives, or is
the environment more important in shaping our thoughts and actions? Such questions
cycle through society repeatedly, forming the public nexus of the "nature vs. nurture
controversy," a strange locution to biologists, who recognize that behaviors exist only in
the context of environmental influence. Nonetheless, the debate flares anew every few
years, reigniting in response to genetic analyses of traits such as intelligence, criminality,
or homosexuality, characteristics freighted with social, political, and legal meaning.
Sir Francis Galton (1822-1911) was the first scientist to study heredity and human
behavior systematically. He focused on behavioral correlations within families and
developed a few research techniques still in use today—twin studies, for example. Galton
also arrived at some interesting conclusions, including this 1907 summary of the
inheritance of criminal tendencies: The ideal criminal has marked peculiarities of
character: his conscience is almost deficient, his instincts are vicious, his power of self-
control is very weak, and he usually detests continuous labor. The absence of self-control
is due to ungovernable temper, to passion, or to mere imbecility, and the conditions that
determine the particular descriptions of crime are the character of the instincts and of the
temptation.
Such are the allure and misunderstanding of genetics among press and public,
however, that even preliminary findings of genetic influence provoke misleading
statements about "genes for" a particular behavior, as if genetic causation had been
established. In fact, genes can do nothing by themselves. All of their actions and
influence are mediated by proteins—gene products—and until we understand something
about the proteins involved in the myriad steps that produce a given trait, and about the
individual uniqueness to which they contribute, it is difficult to propose a plausible
biological explanation for the trait's expression. The uniqueness is compounded by the
non-linear nature of those myriad steps. Indeed, pervasive uniqueness suggests that there
is no fixed essence in human behavior, only variation, a concept central to all of biology
and one that Galton's famous cousin, Charles Darwin, used to build his revolutionary
theory of evolution by natural selection.
To this already complex calculus we must add the knowledge that biological
processes that combine to produce behaviors or any other complex traits cannot exist
apart from the unique experiences of the individual, perhaps dating as far back as
experiences in the womb. An accounting of those experiences and of their interactions
with one's unique biological constitution would confound our ability to make sound
predictions about the occurrence of a given behavior, even if we knew that predisposing
genes were present.
Some progress
Genetics and molecular biology have provided some significant insights into
behaviors associated with inherited disorders. For example, we know that an extra
chromosome 21 is associated with the mental retardation that accompanies Down's
syndrome, although the processes that disrupt brain function are not yet clear. We also
know the steps from gene to effect for a number of single-gene disorders that result in
mental retardation, including, phenylketonuria (PKU), a treatable metabolic disorder for
which all newborns in the United States are tested.
In general, it is easier to discern the relationship between biology and behavior for
chromosomal and single-gene disorders than for common, complex behaviors that are of
considerable interest to specialist and nonspecialist alike. So the former are at the more
informative end of a sliding scale of certainty with respect to our understanding of human
behavior. At the other end of the scale are the hard-to-define personality traits, while
somewhere in between are traits such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder—organic
diseases whose biological roots are undeniable yet unknown, and whose unpredictable
onset teaches us about the importance of environmental contributions even as it reminds
us of our ignorance.
The Human Genome Project doubtless will provide researchers with the data they
need to identify individual genes or suites of genes that contribute to human behaviors.
The really hard work only begins at that point, however, with analysis of the ways in
which the products of those genes influence human growth and development, of the
environmental influences on those processes, and of the degree of individuality of both.
So, the likelihood that we soon will use genetic analysis to predict the behavior of a given
person or to explain a behavior already expressed—a criminally violent act, for example
—is not great. Those who study genes and behavior, however, are confident about one
thing: The debate about nature vs. nurture is empty; the prevailing view is one of how
nature and nurture contribute to the individuality of behavior.