Dr. Kevin Mitchell is Associate Professor of Genetics and Neuroscience at Trinity College Dublin. He is interested in the development of connectivity in the brain, specifically in how this process is controlled by genes and how mutations in such genes affect the connectivity of neuronal circuits, influence behavior and perception and contribute to disease. His research group uses genetic approaches in the mouse to address these questions, and they are also involved in collaborative research looking at the genetics and phenotypic manifestations of synaesthesia and schizophrenia in humans. He’s the author of a book that came out last year, Innate: How the Wiring of Our Brains Shapes Who We Are.

In this episode, we focus on Dr. Mitchell’s book, Innate. We first talk about how to square off human nature with individual variation, and how the genome does not encode a person, and is not the only source of innateness to psychological traits. We also discuss behavioral genetics, the “non-shared environment”, and the conclusions we can derive from polygenic scores. We then refer to how personality shapes the way we experience the world, neuroplasticity, and psychological epigenetics. Toward the end, we also talk about how difficult it is to study group differences, and where sex differences come from and if it makes sense to talk about a “male” and a “female” brain.

Follow Dr. Mitchell’s work:

Faculty page: http://bit.ly/32qe0rS

Personal website: http://bit.ly/33Bpuc7

Wiring the Brain (blog): http://bit.ly/2MKhzCA

ResearchGate profile: http://bit.ly/2LVNCBJ

Twitter handle: @WiringTheBrain

Innate: How the Wiring of Our Brains Shapes Who We Are: https://amzn.to/33zDy60

A HUGE THANK YOU TO MY PATRONS/SUPPORTERS: KARIN LIETZCKE, ANN BLANCHETTE, SCIMED, PER HELGE HAAKSTD LARSEN, LAU GUERREIRO, RUI BELEZA, ANTÓNIO CUNHA, CHANTEL GELINAS, JERRY MULLER, FRANCIS FORDE, HANS FREDRIK SUNDE, YEVHEN BODRENKO, SERGIU CODREANU, ADAM BJERRE, AIRES ALMEIDA, BERNARDO SEIXAS, HERBERT GINTIS, RUTGER VOS, RICARDO VLADIMIRO, BO WINEGARD, VEGA GIDEY, CRAIG HEALY, OLAF ALEX, PHILIP KURIAN, JONATHAN VISSER, DAVID DIAS, ANJAN KATTA, JAKOB KLINKBY, ADAM KESSEL, MATTHEW WHITINGBIRD, ARNAUD WOLFF, TIM HOLLOSY, HENRIK AHLENIUS, AND JOHN CONNORS!

A SPECIAL THANKS TO MY PRODUCERS, YZAR WEHBE, ROSEY, AND JIM FRANK, AND ŁUKASZ STAFINIAK!

AND TO MY EXECUTIVE PRODUCER, MICHAL RUSIECKI!

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