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所在平台: Coursera |
课程主页: https://www.coursera.org/learn/behavioralgenetics
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课程名称：人类行为遗传学导论 概述：本课程将介绍行为遗传学的方法论，包括从双胞胎和收养研究到DNA分析，旨在解答长期以来关于个体在行为特征上差异来源的问题。 课程大纲： 第一部分： 1. 课程简介与概述 - 介绍人类行为遗传学的早期历史，探讨该领域如何受到优生学运动的影响。将结合著名的约翰/琼案例和苯丙酮尿症(PKU)等案例，突出行为遗传学的方法论重要性。 第二部分： 2. 双胞胎研究方法 - 介绍双胞胎研究的基本概念，包括单卵双胞胎(MZ)和异卵双胞胎(DZ)，探讨其相似性评估的方法，并批判性地讨论双胞胎研究方法的局限性及其他研究设计（如收养研究）的重要性。 第三部分： 3. 遗传力的概念 - 讨论遗传力的含义，及其在研究人类时的可估计性和解读方式。介绍孟德尔遗传及ACE模型，并引入基因-环境交互作用。 第四部分： 4. 人类基因组计划(HGP) - 讲解HGP的开展历史及其对遗传学和医学的影响，内容包括DNA、基因的结构及表观遗传学等基础概念。 第五部分： 5. 精神分裂症的遗传研究 - 深入探讨精神分裂症的遗传学研究，解释它如何改变人们对该疾病的认识，以及在精神疾病遺传学中的广泛意义。 第六部分： 6. 智力研究的争议 - 讨论智力（或一般认知能力GCA）在行为遗传学研究中的重要性，分析其遗传和环境影响，并介绍智力障碍的遗传研究。 第七部分： 7. 年龄对行为遗传评估的影响 - 探讨年龄在行为遗传文献中的重要性，着重分析共享与非共享环境影响的变化趋势。 第八部分： 8. 课程总结与未来展望 - 总结人类行为遗传学的主要发现，并讨论其在个性化医疗和个人责任方面的应用潜力。包含对行为遗传学先驱欧文·戈特斯曼教授的访谈。 通过本课程，学员将深入理解行为遗传学的基础知识和当前研究成果，从而为理解个体行为差异的遗传基础奠定基础。
Part: 1
Title:1
Description:Unit # 1: Course Introduction and OverviewOverview: Unit # 1 provides an overview to the field of human behavioral genetics and to this course. We will begin by discussing the early history of the field and how behavioral genetic research influenced and was influenced by the eugenics movement. Once this historical context has been established, we will define the field of behavioral genetics and use this definition to provide an overview of the course. This week’s lectures will end with two case studies that illustrate the importance of behavioral genetic approaches. The first is the famous John/Joan case, where one member of a monozygotic twin pair was raised as a boy and the other as a girl. The second is the human genetic disorder Phenylketonuria (PKU), which has been recognized as a paradigm of human genetic disease since its discovery in 1934.Unit Objectives: At the end of this unit you should know• The history of the founding of the field of behavioral genetics• What the eugenics movement was and how it impacted psychology and behavioral genetics• What the field of behavioral genetics covers• How the John/Joan case represented the extreme of the “Blank Slate” mentality within psychology• Why Phenylketonuria is considered a public health success and model of human genetic diseaseLecture Modules:A. The Nature-Nurture Debate and Founding of Behavioral GeneticsB. The Eugenics MovementC. What is Behavioral GeneticsD. The John/Joan CaseE. Phenylketonuria (PKU) F. Huntington Disease (Supplemental)
Part: 2
Title:2
Description:In Unit #2 the twin study method will be introduced and general findings from twin studies in psychology and psychiatry will be reviewed. The two types of twins, monozygotic (MZ) and dizygotic (DZ), will be described and methods for assessing their similarity will be given. We will also look critically at the limitations of the twin study method and discuss alternative research designs, including adoption studies and the study of reared-apart twins. The importance of convergent evidence from multiple research designs will be emphasized.
Part: 3
Title:3
Description:Some of the most contentious issues in behavioral genetics surround the concept of heritability – Is it a meaningful statistic? Can it be accurately estimated in studies on humans? How should it be interpreted? In this unit we will discuss what is meant by heritability and describe some simple biometric (i.e., quantitative genetic) methods used for it estimation. The unit begins with a review of basic Mendelian inheritance and the introduction of some genetic terminology we will begin to use in the course. The ACE model of quantitative inheritance is described and we will discuss how this model is used to analyze twin data. Finally, the important concept of gene-environment interaction is formally introduced. Beginning this week with quantitative genetics and continuing next week with molecular genetics we will be jumping head first into the thicket of human genetic methodology. For some, this material may be more challenging than that which we covered in the first two weeks of this course. These weeks will, however, provide the foundation we will need to investigate in depth behavioral genetic research on schizophrenia and intelligence in weeks 5 and 6. Please make sure to post questions you have to the discussion forums and especially to the office hours forum.
Part: 4
Title:4
Description:The Human Genome Project (HGP) was begun in 1990 and declared complete in 2003. It has revolutionized our understanding of genetics and will ultimately revolutionize medical practice. In my opinion, every educated citizen should know some basic findings from the HGP. This week’s lectures provide an introduction to molecular biology and the HGP. We will cover topics such as: What is DNA? What is a gene and how are genes structured? In what ways can human genomes differ? What is epigenetics and why do some researchers believe it is very important for understanding behavior? As in previous lectures, I will illustrate some of the basic human genetic phenomena through case studies, in this case ranging from calico cats to the human genetic disorders of Angelman and Prader-Willi syndromes.
Part: 5
Title:5
Description:Now that we have a foundation in basic biometric and molecular genetics we can begin to look in depth at genetic research for behavioral phenotypes. This week we will focus on schizophrenia. There are several reasons for this focus. First, genetics research has fundamentally changed the way researchers and mental health professionals think about this devastating illness; schizophrenia illustrates the successes as well as the limitations of the genetic approach to a psychiatric illness. Second, research on schizophrenia exemplifies what genetic researchers are finding with most common mental illnesses. Although, for example, the exact chromosomal locations of risk variants and the specific candidate genes implicated certainly vary from one psychiatric illness to the next, the basic features of the genetic architecture appears to be remarkably similar across multiple psychiatric illnesses, at least at this time. So an understanding of the genetics of schizophrenia will bring with it an understanding of much of psychiatric genetics.
Part: 6
Title:6
Description:If there is an area of psychology that generates more heated debate than behavioral genetics it would be the field of intelligence research. While most of us acknowledge the differences among us in personality and even risk for mental illness, for some of us differences in intelligence seem more difficult to accept. I confess I am not completely sure why this is the case. Maybe it is because of the involvement of early intelligence researchers with the Eugenics Movement. Alternatively, maybe it is because the conclusions reached by some intelligence researchers seem to challenge our long-held beliefs about social equality, especially when those conclusions are biologically grounded. Regardless, intelligence, or as I prefer to call it general cognitive ability (GCA), has been a major focus of behavioral genetic research and we will use it as a prototype of behavioral genetic research on a quantitative psychological trait.As with the previous unit, we will begin with a brief discussion of what psychologists mean by intelligence or GCA. I will not try and review the vast empirical literature on the correlates of GCA; suffice to say that GCA is correlated, not always strongly, with many desirable outcomes including educational attainment, occupational achievement, health, mortality, criminal conviction, etc. Twin and adoption studies of GCA have implicated the importance of both genetic and nonshared as well as shared environmental influences. Behavioral genetic research has helped to identify features of the shared environment that appear to contribute to differences in intelligence, but, unlike with schizophrenia and other mental illnesses, it has been difficult to identify the specific genetic variants that contribute to the heritability of GCA. This unit will end with a discussion of genetic research on intellectual disability, an important application of intelligence research.Just FYI, one thing we will NOT consider in this unit but some of you will wonder about is developmental behavioral genetic research on intelligence. I promise that it will be covered in Unit 7.
Part: 7
Title:7
Description:I am sure many of you wondered about the impact of age on biometric estimates when we discussed general cognitive ability last week. Indeed some of you asked about this issue on the Forums. You were right to raise the question because this is an important issue in the behavioral genetic literature. Given its importance, I thought it might work best to place the question of age moderation in a larger context, which we do this week. We will begin the week by returning to the distinction between shared and non-shared environmental influences, an important distinction in the behavioral genetic literature. You will see that while shared environmental influences are not important for most behavioral phenotypes, there are a few exceptions (including general cognitive ability). However, in all of these exceptional cases, the magnitude of shared environmental influences decreases with age as the heritability increases.
Part: 8
Title:8
Description:It is hard to believe we are already to the 8th and final week of the course. This unit begins with an overall summary of human behavioral genetic research organized around four general findings, or ‘laws’ of behavioral genetic research. We will then consider, I suppose more accurate speculate about, the application of behavioral genetic research in the field of individualized or genomic medicine and the implications of behavioral genetic research for personal responsibility. This week’s lectures will also include an interview with Professor Irving Gottesman, a pioneer in the field who undertook pioneering behavioral genetic research on schizophrenia and personality.
Behavioral genetic methodologies from twin and adoption studies through DNA analysis will be described and applied to address longstanding questions about the origins of individual differences in behavioral traits.
