There are many people who have been watching the winter Olympics, and have discussed on how these astounding athletes are able to handle such extensive work on their bodies. The athletes are also able to perform better than the average person and are for the most part fearless at these extreme sports. The researchers in this article have recently investigated if whether or not genetics or if their DNA make up is something to consider as an explanation for their behavior of risk taking.
They have found that in previous studies there has been evidence that the brain's levels of a response to the neurotransmitter dopamine, is proven to have an affect on our feelings of gratification, feelings of pleasure, and reward. So they believed that those individuals who engage in extreme or risky conducts were assumed to process dopamine differently than the individuals who did not engage in these extreme activities or behavior. The genetic studies showed that the portions of genes they observed did not show any consistency to be able to conclude the determinant of what those portion of the genes make up the risky behavior in individuals. The researchers did conclude from that study which portion of the gene is the cause for the risk behavior or urge in individuals, but they did determine the variation in a gene DRD4 is to be the closest explanation related to the developing of dopamine receptors in the brain which is drawn to the risk seeking in people.
A graduate student, Cynthia Thomson from the physiology department of University of British Columbia investigated these previous researches that were done and shifted the focus of the similar research by changing the observed type of activities that the individual was partaking in. She developed a questionnaire for participants from a resort in the mountains to fill out, they were between the ages of 17-49 of 117 men and women and she was voluntarily given their DNA swab to use for analyzing in the experimental research. She quantified the sample of individuals' DNA DRD4 genes and focused on a small section of the gene and found that those that scored high on the questionnaire of risky behavior or urges shared the same variance in their DNA coding. The amount of participants were not significant to conclude on those results, so Dr. Thomson (teacher at Quest University in Canada) went back to the same mountains and retrieved 386 more participants and concluded that same associations of the results were found in the DRD4 gene and the risk taking behavior desires. These findings prove that some individuals can have an inherited or innate desire from the genetics of their parents to partake in risky behaviors and risk to reach their optimal level of arousal. The researchers stated that the DNA from each parent can possess different parts or portions of the variant that is found on the DRD4 which can then produce an offspring who may have high sensation to seek out those behaviors.
I found this article interesting because I was curious as to how and why some people appear to be more fearless and others are more timid. The explanation on the different variations on the gene DRD4 explains why there are people who are less likely to do extreme sports, skydive, or even ride a roller coaster, etc. I believe that this research and article are important for future understanding and advancement for genetic explanations of where the origins of human behavior is developed.
Link related to more information on DRD4: http://www.pnas.org/content/99/1/10.full
I thought this article and blog posting was very interesting. I had always wondered if people who live life for extreme stunts that cause adrenaline rushes were genetics or if people were just impacted by their environment. I found it interesting that they have the gene DRD4, as basically the "thrill seeking gene", and that genetics can be the reason as to why certain people live for a thrill and others do not.
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