Dopamine D4 receptor and serotonin transporter promoter in the determination of neonatal temperament RP Ebstein, J Levine, V Geller, J Auerbach, I Gritsenko, RH Belmaker Research Laboratory, S. Herzog Memorial Hospital, P.O. Box 35300, Jerusalem 91351, Israel; Beersheva Mental Health Center, Faculty of Health Sciences, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, P.O. box 4600, Beersheva, Israel; Department of Behavioral Sciences, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel.
Many of the known human genes exist in variant or polymorphic forms that
are distributed frequently in the general population. Some, but not all,
recent studies have shown a contribution of such common genetic
polymorphisms to the determination of adult human personality traits,
especially novelty or sensation seeking and harm avoidance or neuroticism.
Since marked deviations in adult personality traits might be potential risk
factors for some psychiatric disorders such as alcoholism and depression,
early identification of deviations in these temperaments might be important
in the design of intervention strategies. A group of Israeli scientists
reports in the current issue of Molecular Psychiatry
(http://www.stockton-press.co.uk/mp/) on a study in which
they used the Brazelton Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale (NBAS) to
examine the contribution of the so-called novelty seeking' and the
'neuroticism' genes to the behavioral responses of 81 two-week old babies.
Prof. Brazelton of Harvard Medical School designed the NBAS in order to
evaluate the kind of person the newborn baby is. It assesses the baby's
behavioral repertoire as he responds to human and non-human stimuli. The
way the baby uses states of consciousness to control his or her responses
reveals the baby's capacity to respond to his new environment. A
statistically significant association was observed of variants of the
dopamine D4 receptor gene previously shown by some investigators to
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Contact: Julie Vianello
J.vianello@stockton-press.co.uk
301-496-6979
Molecular Psychiatry
25-May-1998