Benefiting at work from Brain Based Insights

Have you ever wondered why some Men Act More Aggressively? Researcher Stephen Manuck, from University of Pittsburgh Medical Center told us why… and also suggested that nurturing mothers can decrease later aggression in their sons.

The study found that aggression in men relates to variations in one of two genes involved in the activity of the neurotransmitter serotonin. A study reported at the 6th International Congress of Neuroendocrinology which took place on June 19 to 22 in downtown Pittsburgh … found that men who showed a genetic predisposition toward aggression could be averted by a mother who nurtured him as an infant, based on a similar study involving primates.

The Pitt study looked at aggression in “normal” men, as possibly the same serotonin-related genetic alterations that have been associated with aggressive behaviors in certain psychiatric and criminal populations. The low activity MAOA gene was only associated with aggressive “acting out” among men with oppositional attitudes. Variation in another serotonin gene, the serotonin 2A receptor, which is necessary for the neurotransmitter to act, also was predictive of antagonistic behavior, but only among men whose fathers had less than a high-school education. That same gene has been is related to personality and anti-social disorders and is observed in some criminal offenders studied. Have you ever wondered about this?