What is the Evolutionary Advantage of Migraine?

Cephalalgia ◽  
2002 ◽  
Vol 22 (8) ◽  
pp. 624-632 ◽  
Author(s):  
E Loder
Keyword(s):  
Nervous System ◽  
Natural Selection ◽  
Environmental Factors ◽  
Genetic Factors ◽  
Evolutionary Perspective ◽  
Defence Mechanism ◽  
Design Constraint ◽  
Trade Off ◽  
Evolutionary Advantage ◽  
Evolutionary Explanations

Susceptibility to migraine is determined by genetic factors and is therefore subject to the forces of natural selection. Migraine is a common and ancient disorder whose prevalence may be increasing, suggesting that a migraine-prone nervous system may be associated with reproductive or survival advantages. Five evolutionary explanations are reviewed that might account for the persistence of migraine: (i) migraine as a defence mechanism; (ii) migraine as a result of conflict with other organisms; (iii) migraine as result of novel environmental factors; (iv) migraine as a trade-off between genetic harms and benefits; and (v) migraine as a design constraint. An evolutionary perspective on migraine allows the generation of important hypotheses about the disorder and suggests rewarding possibilities for further research.

scholarly journals Polygenic risk score and risk of monoclonal B-cell lymphocytosis in caucasians and risk of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) in African Americans

Leukemia ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Geffen Kleinstern ◽  
J. Brice Weinberg ◽  
Sameer A. Parikh ◽  
Esteban Braggio ◽  
Sara J. Achenbach ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Factors ◽  
B Cell ◽  
Risk Score ◽  
Genetic Factors ◽  
Strong Predictor ◽  
Lymphocytic Leukemia ◽  
European Ancestry ◽  
Polygenic Risk Score ◽  
Polygenic Risk ◽  
C Statistic

AbstractMonoclonal B-cell lymphocytosis (MBL) is a precursor to CLL. Other than age, sex, and CLL family-history, little is known about factors associated with MBL risk. A polygenic-risk-score (PRS) of 41 CLL-susceptibility variants has been found to be associated with CLL risk among individuals of European-ancestry(EA). Here, we evaluate these variants, the PRS, and environmental factors for MBL risk. We also evaluate these variants and the CLL-PRS among African-American (AA) and EA-CLL cases and controls. Our study included 560 EA MBLs, 869 CLLs (696 EA/173 AA), and 2866 controls (2631 EA/235 AA). We used logistic regression, adjusting for age and sex, to estimate odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals within each race. We found significant associations with MBL risk among 21 of 41 variants and with the CLL-PRS (OR = 1.86, P = 1.9 × 10−29, c-statistic = 0.72). Little evidence of any association between MBL risk and environmental factors was observed. We observed significant associations of the CLL-PRS with EA-CLL risk (OR = 2.53, P = 4.0 × 10−63, c-statistic = 0.77) and AA-CLL risk (OR = 1.76, P = 5.1 × 10−5, c-statistic = 0.62). Inherited genetic factors and not environmental are associated with MBL risk. In particular, the CLL-PRS is a strong predictor for both risk of MBL and EA-CLL, but less so for AA-CLL supporting the need for further work in this population.

scholarly journals Decreased heritability and emergence of novel genetic effects on pulse wave velocity from youth to young adulthood

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yisong Huang ◽  
Shaoyong Su ◽  
Harold Snieder ◽  
Frank Treiber ◽  
Gaston Kapuku ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Factors ◽  
Pulse Wave Velocity ◽  
Wave Velocity ◽  
Young Adulthood ◽  
Ethnic Differences ◽  
Genetic Factors ◽  
Pulse Wave ◽  
Environmental Influences ◽  
Genetic Effects ◽  
Over Time

AbstractIncreased arterial stiffness measured by pulse wave velocity (PWV) is an important parameter in the assessment of cardiovascular risk. Our previous longitudinal study has demonstrated that carotid-distal PWV showed reasonable stability throughout youth and young adulthood. This stability might be driven by genetic factors that are expressed consistently over time. We aimed to illustrate the relative contributions of genetic and environmental factors to the stability of carotid-distal PWV from youth to young adulthood. We also examined potential ethnic differences. For this purpose, carotid-distal PWV was measured twice in 497 European American (EA) and African American (AA) twins, with an average interval time of 3 years. Twin modelling on PWV showed that heritability decreased over time (62–35%), with the nonshared environmental influences becoming larger. There was no correlation between the nonshared environmental factors on PWV measured at visit 1 and visit 2, with the phenotypic tracking correlation (r = 0.32) completely explained by shared genetic factors over time. Novel genetic influences were identified accounting for a significant part of the variance (19%) at the second measurement occasion. There was no evidence for ethnic differences. In summary, novel genetic effects appear during development into young adulthood and account for a considerable part of the variation in PWV. Environmental influences become larger with age for PWV.

Neural Tube Defects: A Two-Pronged Approach to Primary Prevention

PEDIATRICS ◽  
1982 ◽  
Vol 70 (4) ◽  
pp. 648-650
Author(s):  
K. M. Laurence
Keyword(s):  
Folic Acid ◽  
Primary Prevention ◽  
Environmental Factors ◽  
Neural Tube ◽  
Neural Tube Defects ◽  
Genetic Background ◽  
Genetic Factors ◽  
Maternal Nutrition ◽  
Folic Acid Deficiency ◽  
Acid Deficiency

It is generally agreed that neural tube defects (NTD) have a multifactorial etiology when genetic factors render the developing fetus susceptible to intrauterine environmental factors acting during the fourth week of gestation to interfere with the orderly closure of the neural tube.1 As there is little likelihood that anything can be done about the genetic background, primary prevention would therefore be dependent on eliminating these factors from the environment or avoiding them. My intention here is to enlarge on some aspects of primary prevention of NTD as outlined by Smithells in an earlier issue (Pediatrics 69:498, 1982).2 One environmental factor, poor maternal nutrition and, more particularly, folic acid deficiency seems now to have been identified, but there are almost certainly a number of others.

The Causal Structure of Natural Selection

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles H. Pence
Keyword(s):  
Natural Selection ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Genetic Drift ◽  
Evolutionary Theory ◽  
Causal Structure ◽  
Philosophy Of Biology ◽  
Philosophy Of Physics ◽  
Potential Value ◽  
Multi Level ◽  
Evolutionary Explanations

Recent arguments concerning the nature of causation in evolutionary theory, now often known as the debate between the 'causalist' and 'statisticalist' positions, have involved answers to a variety of independent questions – definitions of key evolutionary concepts like natural selection, fitness, and genetic drift; causation in multi-level systems; or the nature of evolutionary explanations, among others. This Element offers a way to disentangle one set of these questions surrounding the causal structure of natural selection. Doing so allows us to clearly reconstruct the approach that some of these major competing interpretations of evolutionary theory have to this causal structure, highlighting particular features of philosophical interest within each. Further, those features concern problems not exclusive to the philosophy of biology. Connections between them and, in two case studies, contemporary metaphysics and philosophy of physics demonstrate the potential value of broader collaboration in the understanding of evolution.

The Nature and Origin of Common Phobic Fears

1979 ◽  
Vol 134 (4) ◽  
pp. 343-351 ◽  
Author(s):  
Svenn Torgersen
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Factors ◽  
Social Adjustment ◽  
Twin Study ◽  
Genetic Factors ◽  
Factor Analyses ◽  
Factors Affecting ◽  
Five Factors

SummaryBy means of a twin study an attempt was made to throw light upon the aetiology and nosology of phobic fears. Factor analyses revealed five factors, namely separation fears, animal fears, mutilation fears, social fears and nature fears. The study demonstrated that, apart from separation fears, genetic factors play a part in the strength as well as content of phobic fears. Environmental factors, affecting the development of dependence, reserve and neurotic traits generally, seemed also to be of some importance. It was further demonstrated that phobic fears were related to emotional and social adjustment and this was true to an even greater extent for separation fears.

scholarly journals Innovation from a Memetic and Evolutionary Perspective

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 11-15
Author(s):  
Andrej Drapal
Keyword(s):  
Natural Selection ◽  
Evolutionary Perspective ◽  
Human Culture ◽  
The Universe ◽  
Fundamental Mechanism

Innovation happens all around the Universe and is a fundamental mechanism of evolution. Living creatures cannot but exist and develop through innovation. Innovation happens through mutations that make sense in retrospect only. Natural selection makes certain mutations as beneficial and other as something that was already forgotten. As much as genes serve as quantized smaller units where innovation takes place in physical bodies, memes serve as basic quantized units of human culture. Memes as second replicators to genes obey similar laws of evolution and thus innovation as genes. Innovation can be propagated only by removing obstacles on one side and by allowing mutations to emerge as long as they do not destroy identity.

scholarly journals Genetic and environmental influences on disgust proneness, contamination sensitivity, and their covariance

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joshua M. Tybur ◽  
Laura Wesseldijk ◽  
Patrick Jern
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Factors ◽  
Anxiety Disorders ◽  
Genetic Factors ◽  
Environmental Influences ◽  
Parental Modeling ◽  
Disgust Proneness ◽  
Twin Modeling ◽  
Contamination Sensitivity

Dozens of studies indicate that individuals more prone to experiencing disgust have stronger symptoms of anxiety disorders – especially contamination sensitivity. However, no work has informed the degree to which this relationship arises from genetic versus environmental factors. The present study fills this gap by measuring disgust proneness and contamination sensitivity in a sample of 7,199 twins and siblings of twins, including 1,411 complete twin pairs. Disgust proneness was related to contamination sensitivity, r = .32. Multivariate twin modeling revealed that genetic factors accounted for 34% and 40% of the variance in disgust proneness and contamination sensitivity, respectively, and that the correlation between the two traits reflected overlapping genetic (54%) and unshared environmental (46%) – but not shared environmental – influences. While consistent with work indicating that disgust proneness relates to contamination sensitivity, results suggest that parental-modeling hypotheses for explaining this relationship be re-evaluated.

Acquired Aganglionic Megacolon in a Premature Infant: Report of a Case

PEDIATRICS ◽  
1975 ◽  
Vol 56 (3) ◽  
pp. 459-462
Author(s):  
Robert J. Touloukian ◽  
Raymond Duncan
Keyword(s):  
Case Report ◽  
Environmental Factors ◽  
Premature Infant ◽  
Ganglion Cell ◽  
Hirschsprung's Disease ◽  
Hirschsprung’S Disease ◽  
Genetic Factors ◽  
Male Infant ◽  
Distal Colon ◽  
Premature Newborn

Hirschsprung's disease is presumably caused by intrauterine environmental or genetic factors which prevent the migration and formation of the intramural ganglion cell (IMG) in the distal colon. While the IMG is known to be particularly sensitive to anoxemia and other postnatal environmental factors, its selective loss following such stress has not been substantiated in an unoperated patient. The following report of a stressed premature newborn with the clinical and radiographic features of Hirschsprung's disease clearly documents the histologic disappearance of the IMG from the distal colon. CASE REPORT D.J. (#88-65-29), a 1,525-gm male infant, was born to a healthy 22-year-old abortus 0, gravida 1, para 0 mother following an uncomplicated 30-week gestation, ending in a spontaneous uncomplicated delivery.

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