Mental Health is Not Just Due to Good or Bad Genes

Genetics shape our traits in a number of complex ways.

Image by Schanin from Pixabay

Whether human behaviors and personalities are due to nature or nurture has long been settled — it’s always both. Our brains manufacture all of our thoughts, feelings, and actions, but our brains are always performing in, and the product of, the world they have interacted with.

Although “both nature and nurture” is a more nuanced answer than attributing who we are entirely to genes or entirely to the environment, it lacks precision. The relative importance of genes and environment matter, and not merely as the object of intellectual curiosity. If we want to change behaviors or traits, it’s useful to know what role genetics plays, and how it is interacting with environmental forces. More detailed understanding gives us more leverage for intervention.

In the three decades since I earned my doctorate in neuroscience, brain research has grown exponentially. Researchers have sliced, diced and stained brain samples and whole brains, wired them for recordings, and spritzed them with chemicals to discover how we process information and build our individual personalities and predilections. Yet we still have much more to learn.