Comments on: Altered brain activity in schizophrenia may cause exaggerated focus on self https://gregladen.com/blog/2009/01/26/altered-brain-activity-in-schi/ Tue, 27 Jan 2009 13:05:59 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.8 By: uncle noel https://gregladen.com/blog/2009/01/26/altered-brain-activity-in-schi/#comment-529971 Tue, 27 Jan 2009 13:05:59 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2009/01/26/altered-brain-activity-in-schi/#comment-529971 I don’t think Vincent Van Gogh reproduced, but his brother Theo did.
I think BP must have something to do with: the gay, the immune system, intelligence…
but “everything”?
Thanks for teaching me the word for it.

]]> By: Greg Laden https://gregladen.com/blog/2009/01/26/altered-brain-activity-in-schi/#comment-529970 Mon, 26 Jan 2009 17:02:35 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2009/01/26/altered-brain-activity-in-schi/#comment-529970 But… neutral traits eventually become fixed (usually they just go away) in a population. SZ is probably genetic in some forms, and is probably in balance in some forms.

Some days I think everything is a balanced polymorphism.

]]> By: Lilian Nattel https://gregladen.com/blog/2009/01/26/altered-brain-activity-in-schi/#comment-529969 Mon, 26 Jan 2009 16:38:57 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2009/01/26/altered-brain-activity-in-schi/#comment-529969 Even if it isn’t beneficial, it can persist because it doesn’t especially interfere with reproduction.

]]> By: uncle noel https://gregladen.com/blog/2009/01/26/altered-brain-activity-in-schi/#comment-529968 Mon, 26 Jan 2009 12:10:45 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2009/01/26/altered-brain-activity-in-schi/#comment-529968 I wonder if such apparently maladaptive genes and traits are so common because they have been selected for in some way, at some time in the past. Mental illness seems associated with creativity and religious mental states; maybe maybe individuals with the the related genes sometimes confer beneficial traits to a group or village. Like a sociobiological version of the sickle-cell gene.

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