Showing papers by "Daniel P. Howrigan published in 2010"

Theory and Methods in Evolutionary Behavioral Genetics

Abstract: It is a fascinating time to be a researcher interested in human evolution and genetics. Knowledge on molecular genetic variation is growing at a breathtaking pace, placing us in the midst of one of the remarkable revolutions of science — albeit one more akin to the empirically driven atomic revolution of the 20 th century than to the theory-driven Darwinian one of the 19 th century. In the last fi ve years, researchers have collected data on up to several million of the most common DNA variants on tens of thousands of people. As a result, we know more about human genetics than that of any other animal — fruit fl y and nematode worm notwithstanding. While some of this data was collected with the explicit aim to test evolutionary hypotheses, most of it awaits a unifying framework that only evolutionary theory can provide. The principal goal of this chapter is to critically discuss how this new molecular genetic data, together with family and twin data traditionally used by behavioral geneticists, can be used to test evolutionary questions about the causes of human genetic variation. Our intended audience is the behavioral geneticist interested in evolution or evolutionary psychologist interested in genetics, and our treatment of these methods assumes a basic knowledge of population genetics and evolutionary theory and at least some familiarity with methods used in modern genetic analyses.