Genetics and Neuroscience

Abstract

Neurogenetics is a more recent research field than neuroscience. It is characterized by the introduction of genetical techniques and techniques of molecular biology in many fields like the study of learning and memory, language, pathology etc. The field of neurogenetics merges increasingly with biological psychology. In this paper, early studies by Eric Kandel showing the dependency of long term memory on a switch of genes which enhance the learned response, as well as later studies of learning using molecular biology techniques are discussed. Sleep physiology and pathology is discussed with special emphasis on Michel Jouvet’s reprogramming theory of paradoxical sleep, which insists on the potential regulatory function of paradoxical sleep on the interaction between genetic and epigenetic features, providing a possible answer to the nature–nurture controversy