How genes shape our minds ?

Many of our psychological traits are largely innate. Studies on twins, families and humanity in general confirm that personality traits such as intelligence, gender and the risks of mental disorders are largely hereditary, meaning that values prevalent among humanity such as the results of average intelligence or personality traits are due to genetic differences between people, our lives do not start with a blank page.

But how does our genetic heritage affect our personality traits? Are there direct links between molecules and the mind? Do these genes and nerve parts appreciate different cognitive functions?

What does it mean to say we discovered the “intelligence gene,” happiness, or chezofinia? The term “gen X” is an unfortunate formulation of the hypothesis that each particular gene has a specific function: that is, its purpose is to cause X. Actually it’s not like that Interestingly, confusion results from confusing two meanings of the word gene. The gene from a molecular biology perspective is an extension in DNA that symbolizes a particular protein. There is a gene for hemoglobin protein that carries oxygen in the blood, a gene for insulin that regulates blood sugar, genes for metabolic enzymes, neurotransmitter receptors, antibodies, and so on. Which means we have about 20,000 genes defined in this way. It makes sense to see the purpose of these genes as a coding of proteins that perform cellular or physiological functions.

But from a genetic point of view, genes are a type of physical unit associated with certain traits or situations, and can pass from parents to children. The sickle cell gene, for example, justifies the inheritance of diseases in families. The idea linking these two concepts is variance, the sickle cell gene is a genetic mutation in the DNA extension that symbolizes hemoglobin, this mutation is not an end, but a presentation.

So when we talk about a gene for intelligence we mean genetic differences that lead to differences in intelligence. These differences may lead to effects in indirect ways, since we share the same human genome that has a plan to form the human body and brain, and constitutes general human nature; differences arise in that plan by repeating errors each time DNA is copied to make new sperm and eggs. The accumulated genetic difference leads to a variation in how our brains work, and ultimately a variation in our

This is not figurative, we can see the direct effects on genetic differences. Neuroimaging techniques show a great deal of differences in brain sizes, including areas known to function. Images of the cerebral cortex show, for example, the regularity of these areas, their overlap, and the ways they interact and relate to them in different situations, all of which are fairly genetic, and some to a large extent. The relationship between these factors is far from simple, and there is a long history of research on the correlation between unique factors in brain structure and certain behavioral traits, and there is no lack of positive correlation evident in published scientific papers. It turns out that the brain is not largely normative: even specific cognitive functions do not depend on isolated areas of the brain, but on the communication of subsystems. The initial characteristics we know as psychological traits cannot be linked to the function of specific subsystems, but are evident as an interaction between them.

Intelligence, for example, is not related to a specific factor in the brain, but is instead related to the size of the brain, the interdependence of white matter, and how networks work in the brain, in short: there is not one thing you think of in the brain that is associated with the function of one compound, intelligence seems more like a reaction than a communication between different components. We can liken it to the overall performance of a car rather than brake performance or horsepower.

Lack of differentiation at the molecular level also appears at the genetic level. Many common variations among populations have been associated with intelligence, each with little effect, but together they make up 10% of the intelligence diversity within the sample studied.

Many genes are affected by these genetic variations encoded in proteins for brain development functions. Intelligence may appear to be related to certain neurotransmitter pathways, metabolic efficiency in neurons, or some direct molecular factors, but it turns out to be generally due to how the brain binds. The effect of genetic variation on other forms of cognitive and behavioral traits is either indirect, weak and nonspecific.

The majority of genes associated with nerve development are multifunctional, interfering with a number of cellular processes in different areas of the brain, and are therefore indirectly affected by gene diversity, and because cellular systems are highly independent, and the cellular process affects many other proteins with different functions, it is rare that the effects of any individual genetic variant are limited to one part of the brain, brain

All of this means we shouldn’t expect genetic diversity to affect a psychological trait. To highlight the supposed genetic underpinnings of cognitive connotations influenced by cognitive functions, it would be a mistake to think that cognitive function or a psychological situation based on a genetic or molecular basis, the relationship between our genetic stages and our psychological traits is indirect and emerging, but substantial, involving the interaction of a thousand of genetic variations, achieved through a very complex process of development that ultimately gives different factors to the structure and functions of the brain, which collectively affect high-level cognitive and behavioral functions, and that support individual differences in psychology.

This is the nature of things, nature is a solution to any obligation to simplify things for us, when we open a black box we should not expect to see a lot of small black boxes perfectly arranged inside, but will be chaos.