scholarly journals The Michigan State University Twin Registry (MSUTR): Genetic, Environmental and Neurobiological Influences on Behavior Across Development

2006 ◽  
Vol 9 (6) ◽  
pp. 971-977 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kelly L. Klump ◽  
S. Alexandra Burt

AbstractThe primary aim of the Michigan State University Twin Registry (MSUTR) is to examine developmental differences in genetic, environmental, and neurobiological influences on internalizing and externalizing symptoms, with disordered eating and antisocial behavior representing particular areas of interest. Twin participants span several developmental stages (i.e., childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood). Assessments include comprehensive, multiinformant measures of psychiatric and behavioral phenotypes, buccal swab and salivary DNA samples, assays of adolescent and adult steroid hormone levels (e.g., estradiol, progesterone, testosterone, cortisol), and videotaped parent–child interactions of child and adolescent twin families. To date, we have collected data on over 1000 twins, with additional data collections underway. This article provides an overview of the newly developed MSUTR and describes current and future research directions.

2019 ◽  
Vol 22 (6) ◽  
pp. 741-745 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Alexandra Burt ◽  
Kelly L. Klump

AbstractThe primary aim of the Michigan State University Twin Registry (MSUTR) is to examine developmental differences in genetic, environmental, neural, epigenetic, and neurobiological influences on psychopathology and resilience, particularly during childhood and adolescence. The MSUTR has two broad components: a large-scale, population-based registry of child, adolescent, and adult twins and their families (current N ~30,000) and a series of more focused and in-depth studies drawn from the registry (projected N ~7200). Participants in the population-based registry complete a family health and demographic questionnaire via mail. Families can then be recruited for one or more of the intensive, in-person studies from the population-based registry, using any one of several recruitment strategies (e.g., population-based, based on their answers to the registry questionnaire). These latter studies target a variety of biological, genetic, and environmental phenotypes, including multi-informant measures of psychiatric and behavioral phenotypes, functional and structural neuroimaging, comprehensive measures of the twin family environment (e.g., census and neighborhood informant reports of twin neighborhood characteristics, videotaped interactions of child twin families), buccal swab and salivary DNA samples, and/or assays of adolescent and adult steroid hormone levels. This article provides an overview of the MSUTR and describes current and future research directions.


2012 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 344-350 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Alexandra Burt ◽  
Kelly L. Klump

The primary aim of the Michigan State University Twin Registry (MSUTR) is on understanding developmental changes in genetic, environmental, and neurobiological influences on internalizing and externalizing disorders, with antisocial behavior and disordered eating representing our particular areas of interest. The MSUTR has two broad components: a large-scale, population-based registry of child, adolescent, and adult twins and their families (current N ~20,000) and a series of more focused and in-depth studies drawn from the registry (current N ~4,000). Participants in the population-based registry complete a family health and demographic questionnaire via mail. Families are then recruited for one or more of the intensive, in-person studies from the population-based registry based on their answers to relevant items in the registry questionnaire. These in-person assessments target a variety of biological, genetic, and environmental phenotypes, including multi-informant measures of psychiatric and behavioral phenotypes, census and neighborhood informant reports of twin neighborhood characteristics, buccal swab and salivary DNA samples, assays of adolescent and adult steroid hormone levels, and/or videotaped interactions of child twin families. This article provides an overview of the MSUTR and describes current and future research directions.


2009 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 343-350 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Alexandra Burt ◽  
Kelly L. Klump

AbstractA recent study has suggested that aggressive (AGG) and non-aggressive, rule-breaking (RB) antisocial behavior evidence differential and subtype-specific patterns of genetic expression during development. Namely, although genetic influences on RB increase dramatically during early- to mid-adolescence, genetic influences on AGG appear to remain stable. As no other study has examined age-related change in AGG versus RB, more research is clearly needed before any firm conclusions can be drawn. The current study thus examined whether and how age impacted genetic and environmental influences on AGG and RB in a sample of 252 10- to 15-year-old twin pairs assessed as part of the Michigan State University Twin Registry (MSUTR). Results constructively replicated and extended prior findings, indicating that while the magnitude of genetic and environmental influences on AGG remained stable across adolescence, genetic influences on RB increased dramatically with age. Such findings provide additional support for etiological distinctions within the broader construct of antisocial behavior based on the presence or absence of aggression, and offer insights into the expression of genetic influences during development.


2019 ◽  
Vol 22 (6) ◽  
pp. 623-636 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lannie Ligthart ◽  
Catharina E.M. van Beijsterveldt ◽  
Sofieke T. Kevenaar ◽  
Eveline de Zeeuw ◽  
Elsje van Bergen ◽  
...  

AbstractThe Netherlands Twin Register (NTR) is a national register in which twins, multiples and their parents, siblings, spouses and other family members participate. Here we describe the NTR resources that were created from more than 30 years of data collections; the development and maintenance of the newly developed database systems, and the possibilities these resources create for future research. Since the early 1980s, the NTR has enrolled around 120,000 twins and a roughly equal number of their relatives. The majority of twin families have participated in survey studies, and subsamples took part in biomaterial collection (e.g., DNA) and dedicated projects, for example, for neuropsychological, biomarker and behavioral traits. The recruitment into the NTR is all inclusive without any restrictions on enrollment. These resources — the longitudinal phenotyping, the extended pedigree structures and the multigeneration genotyping — allow for future twin-family research that will contribute to gene discovery, causality modeling, and studies of genetic and cultural inheritance.


2021 ◽  
pp. 153819272110086
Author(s):  
Stephen Santa-Ramirez

The activism efforts of Latinx students from the 1960s to 1990s at Michigan State University preceded the current resources available to Latinxs on campus today. Guided by transformational resistance, university library archival sources are used to showcase various activism efforts demonstrated by these collegians. Some include a grape purchasing boycott, a sit-in, and a massive library book check-out protest, which all collectively played salient roles in the development of transformational changes for Latinx students. Recommendations from the findings are provided to advance future research and practice for institutional agents in working for and alongside student activists versus against them.


2021 ◽  
pp. 095679762096853
Author(s):  
S. Alexandra Burt ◽  
D. Angus Clark ◽  
Elizabeth T. Gershoff ◽  
Kelly L. Klump ◽  
Luke W. Hyde

In the current study, we leveraged differences within twin pairs to examine whether harsh parenting is associated with children’s antisocial behavior via environmental (vs. genetic) transmission. We examined two independent samples from the Michigan State University Twin Registry. Our primary sample contained 1,030 families (2,060 twin children; 49% female; 6–10 years old) oversampled for exposure to disadvantage. Our replication sample included 240 families (480 twin children; 50% female; 6–15 years old). Co-twin control analyses were conducted using a specification-curve framework, an exhaustive modeling approach in which all reasonable analytic specifications of the data are interrogated. Results revealed that, regardless of zygosity, the twin experiencing harsher parenting exhibited more antisocial behavior. These effects were robust across multiple operationalizations and informant reports of both harsh parenting and antisocial behavior with only a few exceptions. Results indicate that the association between harsh parenting and children’s antisocial behavior is, to a large degree, environmental in origin.


2012 ◽  
Vol 43 (6) ◽  
pp. 1269-1278 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. A. Burt ◽  
K. L. Klump

BackgroundPrior research has indicated that affiliation with delinquent peers activates genetic influences on delinquency during adolescence. However, because other studies have indicated that the socializing effects of delinquent peers vary dramatically across childhood and adolescence, it is unclear whether delinquent peer affiliation (DPA) also moderates genetic influences on delinquency during childhood.MethodThe current study sought to evaluate whether and how DPA moderated the etiology of delinquency in a sample of 726 child twins from the Michigan State University Twin Registry (MSUTR).ResultsThe results robustly supported etiological moderation of childhood delinquency by DPA. However, this effect was observed for shared environmental, rather than genetic, influences. Shared environmental influences on delinquency were found to be several-fold larger in those with higher levels of DPA as compared to those with lower levels. This pattern of results persisted even when controlling for the overlap between delinquency and DPA.ConclusionsOur findings bolster prior work in suggesting that, during childhood, the association between DPA and delinquency is largely (although not solely) attributable to the effects of socialization as compared to selection. They also suggest that the process of etiological moderation is not specific to genetic influences. Latent environmental influences are also amenable to moderation by measured environmental factors.


Author(s):  
James C.S. Kim

Bovine respiratory diseases cause serious economic loses and present diagnostic difficulties due to the variety of etiologic agents, predisposing conditions, parasites, viruses, bacteria and mycoplasma, and may be multiple or complicated. Several agents which have been isolated from the abnormal lungs are still the subject of controversy and uncertainty. These include adenoviruses, rhinoviruses, syncytial viruses, herpesviruses, picornaviruses, mycoplasma, chlamydiae and Haemophilus somnus.Previously, we have studied four typical cases of bovine pneumonia obtained from the Michigan State University Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory to elucidate this complex syndrome by electron microscopy. More recently, additional cases examined reveal electron opaque immune deposits which were demonstrable on the alveolar capillary walls, laminae of alveolar capillaries, subenthothelium and interstitium in four out of 10 cases. In other tissue collected, unlike other previous studies, bacterial organisms have been found in association with acute suppurative bronchopneumonia.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document