No.172 Seminar ： Behavioral genetic study to understand developmental mechanism of psychopathology
- Dr. Yusuke Takahashi (Associate Professor, The Hakubi Center for Advanced Research / Kyoto University Graduate School of Education / Design Graduate Program)
- 2019/10/15 4:30pm
- Conference Room 1&2,The first basement floor, Research Administration Building(Hakubi Center building)
- English / Japanese
- Closed (only staff of Kyoto University)
Summary
Human behavioral genetics is one of promising applied statistics with a genetically informed sample (e.g., twin siblings) which allow us to understand the etiological background of quantitative traits. In this talk, I would like to show you the results from our two twin studies on depression and callous-unemotional (CU) traits. The first half of my talk is on depression with a Japanese twin sample. In this study, we conducted a genetically informed factor analysis to elucidate both the phenotypic and aetiological architectures of self-reported depression among a Japanese adult twin sample. Depression symptomatology appears to be adequately captured by a substantially heritable general factor. The heritability of this general factor (47%) was in line with commonly reported heritability estimates for depression. The three specific factors – cognitive, affective and somatic – are mostly explained by non-shared environmental factors, which include measurement error. The extent to which these specific factors are uniquely associated with correlates of depression when the general factor is accounted for should be investigated in future studies. In the latter part, I am talking about CU traits with a UK twin sample. This study examined the genetic and environmental influences underlying baseline level and developmental course of CU traits across childhood and adolescence. Our findings demonstrate that rather than only being conceptualized as factors of stability, genes also play a dynamic role in explaining systematic change in CU traits. Furthermore, genetic effects for the initial risk and subsequent development of CU traits are not the same. Last, I really would like to talk more about some ongoing research and future directions.
Opening talk
“Cross-disciplinary Research and Teaching of Climate Change Law and Policy”
- Speaker： Dr. Elena Aydos (Senior Lecturer and Program Convener for the Master of Laws (LLM) and Master of Environmental Law at the Newcastle Law School, University of Newcastle, Australia. Invited Reseacher of Sven Rudolph)
- Date：Tuesday, October 15th, 2019, 16:30-
- Venue:Conference Room 1&2,The first basement floor, Research Administration Building(Hakubi Center building)
- Presentation Language:English
- Format of the seminar:Closed (only staff of Kyoto University)