Praise for a critical perspective

2006 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 405-405 ◽  
Author(s):  
David C. Airey ◽  
Richard C. Shelton
Keyword(s):  
Mental Disorders ◽  
Balancing Selection ◽  
Neutral Evolution ◽  
Critical Perspective ◽  
Target Article ◽  
Evolutionary Genetic

The target article skillfully evaluates data on mental disorders in relation to predictions from evolutionary genetic theories of neutral evolution, balancing selection, and polygenic mutation-selection balance, resulting in a negative outlook for the likelihood of success finding genes for mental disorders. Nevertheless, new conceptualizations, methods, and continued interactions across disciplines provide hope.

Resolving the paradox of common, harmful, heritable mental disorders: Which evolutionary genetic models work best?

2006 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 385-404 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew C. Keller ◽  
Geoffrey Miller
Keyword(s):  
Mental Disorders ◽  
Mental Disorder ◽  
Human Behavior ◽  
Behavior Genetics ◽  
Balancing Selection ◽  
Paternal Age ◽  
Heterozygote Advantage ◽  
Psychiatric Genetics ◽  
Apparent Paradox ◽  
Evolutionary Genetic

Given that natural selection is so powerful at optimizing complex adaptations, why does it seem unable to eliminate genes (susceptibility alleles) that predispose to common, harmful, heritable mental disorders, such as schizophrenia or bipolar disorder? We assess three leading explanations for this apparent paradox from evolutionary genetic theory: (1) ancestral neutrality (susceptibility alleles were not harmful among ancestors), (2) balancing selection (susceptibility alleles sometimes increased fitness), and (3) polygenic mutation-selection balance (mental disorders reflect the inevitable mutational load on the thousands of genes underlying human behavior). The first two explanations are commonly assumed in psychiatric genetics and Darwinian psychiatry, while mutation-selection has often been discounted. All three models can explain persistent genetic variance in some traits under some conditions, but the first two have serious problems in explaining human mental disorders. Ancestral neutrality fails to explain low mental disorder frequencies and requires implausibly small selection coefficients against mental disorders given the data on the reproductive costs and impairment of mental disorders. Balancing selection (including spatio-temporal variation in selection, heterozygote advantage, antagonistic pleiotropy, and frequency-dependent selection) tends to favor environmentally contingent adaptations (which would show no heritability) or high-frequency alleles (which psychiatric genetics would have already found). Only polygenic mutation-selection balance seems consistent with the data on mental disorder prevalence rates, fitness costs, the likely rarity of susceptibility alleles, and the increased risks of mental disorders with brain trauma, inbreeding, and paternal age. This evolutionary genetic framework for mental disorders has wide-ranging implications for psychology, psychiatry, behavior genetics, molecular genetics, and evolutionary approaches to studying human behavior.

Genes for susceptibility to mental disorder are not mental disorder: Clarifying the target of evolutionary analysis and the role of the environment

2006 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 405-406 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas B. Allen ◽  
Paul B. T. Badcock
Keyword(s):  
Mental Disorders ◽  
Genetic Analysis ◽  
Mental Disorder ◽  
Genetic Model ◽  
Common Mental Disorders ◽  
Balancing Selection ◽  
Evolutionary Analysis ◽  
Evolutionary Genetic

In this commentary, we critique the appropriate behavioural features for evolutionary genetic analysis, the role of the environment, and the viability of a general evolutionary genetic model for all common mental disorders. In light of these issues, we suggest that the authors may have prematurely discounted the role of some of the mechanisms they review, particularly balancing selection.

An evolutionary framework for mental disorders: Integrating adaptationist and evolutionary genetic models

2006 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 429-441 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew C. Keller ◽  
Geoffrey Miller
Keyword(s):  
Mental Disorders ◽  
Mental Disorder ◽  
Balancing Selection ◽  
Environmental Noise ◽  
Genetic Models ◽  
Selective Sweeps ◽  
Arms Races ◽  
Evolutionary Genetic ◽  
Non Equilibrium ◽  
Disorder Risk

This response (a) integrates non-equilibrium evolutionary genetic models, such as coevolutionary arms-races and recent selective sweeps, into a framework for understanding common, harmful, heritable mental disorders; (b) discusses the forms of ancestral neutrality or balancing selection that may explain some portion of mental disorder risk; and (c) emphasizes that normally functioning psychological adaptations work against a backdrop of mutational and environmental noise.

Resilience in psychology: A critical analysis of the concept

2018 ◽  
Vol 28 (4) ◽  
pp. 528-541 ◽  
Author(s):  
Silke Schwarz
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Mental Disorders ◽  
Health System ◽  
Psychiatric Disorders ◽  
Mental Health System ◽  
Critical Analysis ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Critical Perspective ◽  
Life Conditions ◽  
The Individual

Historically, psychiatry and clinical psychology focused on understanding how stressful life conditions led to psychiatric disorders. With the rise of positive psychology, the focus shifted to thriving through adversity and to concepts such as resilience. However, the number of mental disorders is still increasing. Due to a neoliberal Western decontextualizing stance in psychology, the concept of resilience is at risk of reproducing power imbalances and discrimination within our society. Resilience is analysed from a critical perspective, mostly with a Marxist point of view, including Foucauldian discursive approaches, as well as a biomedical critique of the current mental health system, to illustrate the shortcomings of Western psychologies. This article illustrates how a contextualized understanding of resilience that accounts for political, historical, and socioeconomic contexts at analytical levels besides the individual may overcome this ethnocentric and neoliberal bias.

scholarly journals The evolutionary genetics of personality

2007 ◽  
Vol 21 (5) ◽  
pp. 549-587 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lars Penke ◽  
Jaap J. A. Denissen ◽  
Geoffrey F. Miller
Keyword(s):  
Personality Traits ◽  
Genetic Variance ◽  
Balancing Selection ◽  
Molecular Genetic ◽  
Evolutionary Genetics ◽  
Personality Psychology ◽  
Personality Differences ◽  
Selective Neutrality ◽  
Evolutionary Genetic ◽  
Genetic Mechanisms

Genetic influences on personality differences are ubiquitous, but their nature is not well understood. A theoretical framework might help, and can be provided by evolutionary genetics. We assess three evolutionary genetic mechanisms that could explain genetic variance in personality differences: selective neutrality, mutation‐selection balance, and balancing selection. Based on evolutionary genetic theory and empirical results from behaviour genetics and personality psychology, we conclude that selective neutrality is largely irrelevant, that mutation‐selection balance seems best at explaining genetic variance in intelligence, and that balancing selection by environmental heterogeneity seems best at explaining genetic variance in personality traits. We propose a general model of heritable personality differences that conceptualises intelligence as fitness components and personality traits as individual reaction norms of genotypes across environments, with different fitness consequences in different environmental niches. We also discuss the place of mental health in the model. This evolutionary genetic framework highlights the role of gene‐environment interactions in the study of personality, yields new insight into the person‐situation‐debate and the structure of personality, and has practical implications for both quantitative and molecular genetic studies of personality. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

scholarly journals Candidate genes under balancing selection in a plant bacterial pathogen

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
José A. Castillo ◽  
Spiros N. Agathos
Keyword(s):  
Candidate Genes ◽  
Plant Defenses ◽  
Extreme Values ◽  
Balancing Selection ◽  
Bacterial Pathogen ◽  
Neutral Evolution ◽  
Broad Host Range ◽  
Primary Metabolism ◽  
Plant Host ◽  
A Genome

ABSTRACTPlant pathogens are under significant selective pressure by the plant host. Consequently, they are expected to have adapted to this condition or contribute to evading plant defenses. In order to acquire long-term fitness, plant bacterial pathogens are usually forced to maintain advantageous genetic diversity in populations. This strategy ensures that different alleles in the pathogen’s gene pool are maintained in a population at frequencies larger than expected under neutral evolution. This selective process, known as balancing selection, is the subject of this work in the context of a common plant bacterial pathogen. We performed a genome-wide scan ofRalstonia solanacearum,an aggressive plant bacterial pathogen that shows broad host range and causes a devastating disease called ‘bacterial wilt’. Using a sliding window approach, we analyzed 57 genomes from three phylotypes ofR. solanacearumto detect signatures of balancing selection. A total of 161 windows showed extreme values in three summary statistics of population genetics: Tajima’s D, Watterson’s θ and Fu & Li’s D*. We discarded any confounding effects due to demographic events by means of coalescent simulations of genetic data. The prospective windows correspond to 78 genes that map in any of the two main replicons ofR. solanacearum.The candidate genes under balancing selection are related to primary metabolism (51.3%) or directly associated to virulence (48.7%), being involved in key functions targeted to dismantle plant defenses or to participate in critical stages in the pathogenic process. These genes are useful to understand and monitor the evolution of bacterial pathogen populations and emerge as potential candidates for future treatments to induce specific plant immune responses.

scholarly journals Balancing Selection in Structured Populations of Three-Spined Sticklebacks

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Doko-Miles Thorburn ◽  
Kostas Sagonas ◽  
Tobias Lenz ◽  
Frederic Chain ◽  
Philine Feulner ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Candidate Genes ◽  
Demographic Change ◽  
Gasterosteus Aculeatus ◽  
Balancing Selection ◽  
Structured Populations ◽  
Neutral Evolution ◽  
River Population ◽  
Environmental Pressures ◽  
Population Pair ◽  
Genome Wide

Abstract Balancing selection describes evolutionary processes that maintain genetic diversity. To date, the number of impacted genes and underlying biological functions remain elusive. Using 60 three-spined stickleback genomes (Gasterosteus aculeatus) from five recently diverged lake-river population-pairs, we performed genome-wide scans across two levels of organization: population-pairs and populations. We overlapped Tajima’s D and Watterson’s estimator metrics and verified signals with additional summary statistics, and evaluated alternative explanations: neutral evolution, population structure, associated overdominance, or demographic change. Candidate windows exhibiting signals of balancing selection spanned 2.31% (population-pair) and 3.10% (population) of the autosomes. These candidate windows had extended linkage disequilibrium and were enriched in intergenic and non-synonymous SNPs. We identified 715 (population-pair) and 1,010 (population) candidate genes under balancing selection. Importantly, using conservative thresholds, we found a small proportion of candidate genes overlapped with highly differentiated loci or regions of potential associated overdominance. There was little evidence of confounding effects originating from demographic change. Overall, candidate genes under balancing selection were associated with functions related to interactions with the environment (olfaction and receptor signalling pathways). Our results demonstrate selection that maintains standing genetic variation is common and evolves in response to local environmental pressures, playing an important role in adaptation.

Conceptualizing neurodevelopmental disorders as networks: Promises and challenges

2019 ◽  
Vol 42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristien Hens ◽  
Kris Evers ◽  
Johan Wagemans
Keyword(s):  
Autism Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder ◽  
Mental Disorders ◽  
Mood Disorders ◽  
Neurodevelopmental Disorders ◽  
Network Models ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Depression And Anxiety ◽  
Hyperactivity Disorder ◽  
Target Article

AbstractThe target article by Borsboom et al. proposes network models as an alternative to reductionist approaches in the analysis of mental disorders, using mood disorders such as depression and anxiety as examples. We ask how this framework can be applied to neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Specifically, we raise a number of promises and challenges when conceptualizing neurodevelopmental disorders as networks.

Reductionism in retreat

2019 ◽  
Vol 42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Denny Borsboom ◽  
Angélique O. J. Cramer ◽  
Annemarie Kalis
Keyword(s):  
Mental Disorders ◽  
Brain Disorders ◽  
Multiple Realizability ◽  
Network Approach ◽  
Biological Factors ◽  
Extended Systems ◽  
Target Article ◽  
The Common

AbstractWe address the commentaries on our target article in terms of four major themes. First, we note that virtually all commentators agree that mental disorders are not brain disorders in the common interpretation of these terms, and establish the consensus that explanatory reductionism is not a viable thesis. Second, we address criticisms to the effect that our article was misdirected or aimed at a straw man; we argue that this is unlikely, given the widespread communication of reductionist slogans in psychopathology research and society. Third, we tackle the question of whether intentionality, extended systems, and multiple realizability are as problematic as claimed in the target article, and we present a number of nuances and extensions with respect to our article. Fourth, we discuss the question of how the network approach should incorporate biological factors, given that wholesale reductionism is an unlikely option.

Heterogeneity of cognitive-neurobiological determinants of resilience

2015 ◽  
Vol 38 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erno J. Hermans ◽  
Guillén Fernández
Keyword(s):  
Mental Disorders ◽  
Paradigm Shift ◽  
Recent Literature ◽  
Vulnerability Factors ◽  
Target Article

AbstractIn their target article, Kalisch and colleagues advocate a paradigm shift in research on stress-related mental disorders away from vulnerability factors and toward determinants of resilience. We endorse this shift but argue that their focus on “appraisal style” as the ultimate path to resilience may be too narrow. We illustrate this point by examining recent literature on the role of corticosteroids in resilience.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document