Why do we do the things we do?  The age-old question often brings up the age-old "nature-nurture" debate. Now the age-old debate has a new twist -- experience changes genes.

The essence of the nature-nurture debate has always been, how much of who we are is determined by nature (our genes) and how much by nurture (our experiences).  The argument can end up being an all-or-nothing, one-or-the-other debate.  Reasonable people usually will concede that the answer is probably "a little of each".  I often argue "It doesn't matter, we can't change our genes or our past experience. We can only move forward."

But it seems, I have been wrong.

In the past decade it has been found that experience can alter DNA (which affects our genes).  This effect is known as epogenetics. Because these changes affect genes, events early in life have the potential to make a lasting impact on behavior and health.

The September 29, 2010 issue of The Journal of Neuroscience published a study indicating that "early life stress, such as an extreme lack of parental affection, has lasting effects on a gene important to normal brain processes and also tied to mental disorders. See the Society for Neuroscience (SNF) article. Experience changes our genes