Behavioral Genetics Class Week 2: Twin Studies

This is the summary of Week Two of my Behavioral Genetics class.  This week, the instructor discussed the types of experiments used to investigate genetic and environmental contributions to individual differences:

Twin Studies
- The main type of experiment used is twin studies.
- Twin studies work well because they provide two excellent naturally occuring test groups.  Monozygotic twins ("MZ") share 100% of their DNA and also have a (roughly / arguably) 100% similar upbringing.  Dizygotic twins ("DZ") share 50% of their DNA (like siblings) and have a 100% similar upbringing.  Comparing and contrasting these two groups can help show whether traits are more influenced by genetics or environment.
- Occasionally, MZ twins are reared apart, so in this case they share 100% of their DNA and (again, roughly / arguably) 0% of their upbringing, so all physical and psychological similarities between twins reared apart are due to genetics.
- The findings from twin studies are:
  - MZ twins are almost always more similar than DZ twins, even when reared-apart.
  - For many (but not all!) traits, reared-apart twins are not much less similar than reared-together twins.  (The most notable exceptional trait is IQ, where environment seems to play a bigger role.)
  - MZ twins are never perfectly similar (so, while the first two points show that genetics plays a big role, this shows that environment also plays a role).

Adoption Studies
- A second type of study used is adoption studies.  Psychologists compare adopted siblings (not genetically related, but raised in the same home).  Also, psychologists compare adopted children to their birth parents and also to their adoptive parents.  The findings:
- In the adopted sibling studies:  There is very little similarity in personality (ie emotionality, happiness, etc.) between adopted siblings.  The correlation is not zero, but less than the correlation with twins or biological siblings.
- In the parent studies:  Adopted individuals tend to resemble both sets of parents, but they resemble their birth parents more than their adoptive parents (for psychological traits).

March Madness: How to Dominate the Brackets

Here are my rules for how to fill out an NCAA bracket, listed in order of priority:

1. Always choose Duke to be the champion.
2. Pick Nebraska teams to upset and to go as far as reasonably possible.
3. Pick Nevada to upset and to go as far as reasonably possible.  (And by Nevada, I do not mean UNLV.)
4. Pick ACC teams, but --
5. Always choose to have UNC lose awkwardly early, preferably in the first round.  
6. Feel some cognitive dissonance, but choose Ivy League teams as upset teams for at least two rounds.
7. In the first round, choose at least half of the 10, 11, and 12 seeds to upset as this is the best place to balance gaining in the points with a reasonable probability of success. 
8. At this point, if you have any choices left, maybe take a minute to learn about the current college basketball season and make some picks accordingly.  

What's your system for filling out NCAA Brackets?

On Half Marathoning (to run or not to run)

<-----This quote is the opposite of how I feel about running.  Nevertheless, every few years, I get the notion that it would be a good idea to sign up for a half marathon.  And after the fact - after the race is over and enough days have passed that i can start walking without a limp - I'm always really glad I did it.

This weekend, I ran the Shamrock Half Marathon in Virginia Beach.  The Shamrock is a fun, well-run race.  It might be unique in setting:  2/3rds near the ocean, 1/3rd through a military base.  It was fun to see everyone dressed up in green to go with the St. Patrick's Day theme.  If you're into drinking beer during the race, there's an opportunity at almost every mile (i can barely stomach water when i'm running, so no beer on the course for me), as well as a big party tent on the beach at the end serving Irish stew and Yuengling.  The race course is relatively flat and fast, and the parts near the beach are scenic (not so much through the military base).  The weather is a big wild card in March, but we got a perfect day:  50 degrees and dry throughout the race.  I enjoyed this race and would recommend it to anyone looking for a fun and fast half.

After-race selfie

Here are some of the pros and cons of running a half-marathon:

The impressive finisher's medal

Pros:
- Race day is super fun.  You're there with thousands of people who are pumped about running.  You get to run along one of the most scenic routes in the city while police officers make traffic stop for you.  You get swag (at the Shamrock, we got: t-shirt, running hat, giant finisher's medal, beach towel, beer, and Irish stew).  It's a fun event and if you get through all your training runs and make it to the actual race, you will have a good time.
- It's a good motivator to get in shape.
- It's inspirational to see the various good things people are doing as part of their race -- raising money for cancer research, pushing non-ambulatory family members in jogging chairs, running alongside blind runners as guides (i thought of you, Emily Cropper!).  Not to mention the hundreds of volunteers who wake up at the crack of dawn to help out with the race and cheer on runners.  So much human kindness going on.
- Running a race that's a double digit number of miles feels (to me) like a real accomplishment.
-There are moments in training where you will want to quit.  If you can push past those moments and keep going, it builds your mental toughness.

Cons:
-  While the race itself is very fun, the vast majority of your time will be spent on solitary training runs in preparation for the main event.  (Unless you find a running buddy or you are a 25 year old wunderkind who can do one 6 mile run the weekend before and that's your entire training plan.)  So if you don't like time spent alone, or you find running to be boring / tedious / painful, or you are already short on time and energy...this might not be the best time to sign up for a long race.  Half marathons are very doable if exercise is already a regular part of your life (meaning 3-4 times per week for at least an hour per workout session), but they are still a commitment, and if you don't like running at least a little bit, then this probably isn't the event for you.
- Once you pick a training schedule, it's easy to get obsessive about following it, and then frustrating when inevitable problems come up (illness, minor injury, busyness) and you have to shrink the quantity or quality of your miles for awhile.

This was my first half marathon since becoming a parent, so here are some ways that half marathon training felt different after having kids:

My training frenemy, the treadmill

- This might be a big "duh", but my overall energy level was a lot lower when I trained as a parent as opposed to training before I was a parent.  The weekend long runs actually felt easier, maybe because they were a nice break from the same-every-day home routine.  But the weekday runs, and finding the energy to make it through regular life, got pretty hard as my mileage went over 20 miles per week.  There was one stretch that was particularly difficult - we had 2 weeks of snow days and Kenny was away at a conference for part of that time.  It was *really* hard, after finally getting the kids to bed for the night, to choose to get on the treadmill for an hour rather than just collapsing on the couch with a glass of wine to watch TV.  (Lest anyone feel bad for me due to my (self imposed) (first world) problem of a running schedule, I cut my mileage in half during that week and I definitely still finished the day with wine and Facebook.)
- It was nice to feel like I had an identity other than "mom" during the time I spent running.  Also, it was nice to have a project with a beginning, middle, and end.  (Which is not something that happens a lot when your job is parenting young kids.)
-When running outdoors, I triple checked before crossing intersections (and also tried to make eye contact and exchange waves with turning drivers), as I care a lot more about making it home in one piece and less about looking cool.

These were the tunes on my Ipod Shuffle that got me through the runs:
Black Keys (El Camino), Decemberists (The King is Dead), Jennifer Knapp (The Collection), Guster (Lost and Gone Forever), Beck (Guero), Kanye (Late Registration), LeCrae (Gravity & Anomaly), Trip Lee (Good Life), various 90s / early 2000s hip-hop and R&B.
[I was really hoping that there would be a sequence where the Shuffle played Beck followed by Destiny's Child followed by Kanye, because the Grammies, but sadly that never happened.]

One other random fact about half marathons:  when I was at the end stages of labor and delivery with Joshua, my sister-in-law was running a very hilly half marathon in San Francisco.  Going through some difficult moments of labor, one of my motivating thoughts was, "at least i'm not running 13.1 miles up and down the hills of San Francisco".  Thank you for that, Naomi :).

Behavioral Genetics class Week One: Intro

To fulfill one of my New Year's resolutions, I'm taking a Coursera class.  Coursera is a website that offers free online college classes in a wide variety of subjects.  I am taking an introductory course in Behavioral Genetics.  I find this subject inherently interesting - I was a psychology major in college - but the main reason I'm taking it is to get some framework for thinking about things with Joshua.  Specifically:

• What kind of  behavioral / personality / cognitive traits are caused by his missing genes (nature)
• What environmental (nurture) interventions can we do to try to help in areas that are more difficult for him. 

I don't expect that this course will speak directly to Joshua's situation, but I'm hoping that it will give me an understanding of the basic concepts in behavioral genetics so that I will have a better idea what I'm doing when I try to research 4Q deletions.

So I'm going to try to do a blog post each week writing about any interesting and helpful things I learn from the course.  This will mostly be for my own memory so I'm not going to put these up on Facebook, but I will put them on my blog so that people can follow along if they're interested.  This is not an attempt to summarize the whole course - it's free and easy to sign up - but just things that I want to remember.
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Week One was an introduction to the field of behavioral genetics.  Points of interest:

• At the beginning of the twentieth century, there was a widespread belief that everything about a person - their personality, intelligence, behavior, etc. - is determined by their genes.  This led to the Eugenics movement, which was an effort to improve human society by influencing who does and does not reproduce.  I read a lot about Eugenics in college, in both my history and psychology classes.  But now that I have a child with a chromosome disorder, it was physically painful to hear a lecture about forced sterilization, "three generations of imbeciles is enough", etc.  Also made me grateful for how far we as a society have come in tolerance towards individuals with differences, even though there's plenty of work to be done towards inclusion.
• In the 1960s, the popular idea was that humans are born as "blank slates" and everything about us is formed by our environment.  The most radical "proof" of this idea was the John / Jane Doe study.  There were two identical twin boys; one was (tragically) accidentally castrated at age one.  Psychologists advised the parents to raise this boy as a girl.  This appeared to go well for the first ten years, and the psychologist published papers stating that this proved the truth of the blank slate theory.  But once "Jane" reached puberty, she started having serious suicidal ideation, so her parents revealed the truth, and she immediately changed her name and gender identity back to male.  (And continued to have psychological trouble for the rest of his life.)  There are so many crazy, where-was-the-ethics-board issues in this story that it would be hard to use it to prove anything -- but it does offer evidence pure "blank slate" theory is an oversimplification.  
• So now psychologists believe that people's behavior, personality, and cognition is a mix of nature and nurture.  Behavioral genetics uses genetics methodologies to study the nature and origins of individual differences in human behavior.
• Pleiotropy - genes can have multiple phenotypic effects (Phenotypic = that which is expressed or observed, such as behaviors and symptoms) (Genotypic = that which is inherited)
• Gene-environment interaction - Genetic effects depend on environmental context.
• PKU - example of inborn error of metabolism.  Children born with one missing gene exhibited all sorts of serious symptoms.  The gene produced an enzyme that helped the body do several different things.  Once the missing gene was identified, the problem could be corrected relatively easily  with a change in diet.  If the problem was not identified early in childhood, it led to severe problems for the rest of the child's life.  This is not the case with every missing gene (that it will lead to such serious problems, but can also be easily treated) -- but it does remind me that I would like to get Joshua a consult with a metabolic doctor if we get a chance.  

Lent, Spring Cleaning, & Courage

As Easter approaches, I've been learning more about Lent.  Growing up as a (mostly non-denominational) evangelical, I never learned much about Lent.  I knew when Lent began and ended, and very occasionally I gave up something minor for the season, but I never really understood why.  Now I attend an Anglican church, and Anglicans make it a primary point to observe and reflect on each point in the church calendar.  One of the pastors at my Anglican church, Nile Gomez, described Lent as spring cleaning - a time to take inventory of things that we want to keep and things that we want to get rid of, in order to make space for God.  

That same week, one of my friends posted this similar description of Lent:  “Yet whatever else it may be, Lent should never be morose – an annual ordeal during which we begrudgingly forgo a handful of pleasures. Instead, we ought to approach Lent as an opportunity, not a requirement. After all, it is meant to be the church’s springtime, a time when, out of the darkness of sin’s winter, a repentant, empowered people emerges.” From Bread and Wine: readings for Lent and Easter 

So I've been thinking about Lent from that perspective:  as a spring cleaning.  For me, two of the major problem areas in my life are fear and pride, and these are often two sides of the same coin.  I'm fearful when any aspect of my life goes  out of my control.  I make an idol out of comfort and routine, because these things give the illusion that I'm in control (rather than God) and feed my pride.  I resist anything that threatens to break up my momentary comfort and day-to-day routine because I'm fearful about all the things I can't control in that.  Unfortunately, fear is not as easy to give up as Facebook or chocolate.  (Not that those would be easy things to give up either!)  It will be a lifelong project for me.  But to make any progress - to clear out just a little bit of the fear that clutters my heart and make just a little more room for God - would be a useful spring cleaning.  And to add more of the opposite qualities - courage & faith - would also be a helpful spring cleaning. 


This Lenten season has brought up a perfect opportunity to work on fear.  We are moving across the country in a month.  The last blog post lists all the reasons why this will be a good move for our family, and I'm very excited to live close to our friends and family in Reno.  It's the transition that makes me so nervous.  My natural first response to any big change is to fret about all the things that could go wrong, stress about all the details that need to be worked out, and just let fear consume me.  (Kenny is handling most of the details of the move, and doing a great job, so that's calming my nerves about our upcoming transition -- but the general point still holds.)  When Kenny and I discuss major changes in our lives - like moving to a new state - he has the adventurous spirit and I have the Debbie Downer spirit.  I am oriented to keeping up the status quo.  He is oriented towards thinking about how our family can live in the best possible way and actively working to get to that place.   It's not entirely bad that we're different this way - we balance each other out - but he often brings up good ideas and my immediate reaction is to throw a damp towel on the whole thing.  I would like to live with more faith that God will take care of us as we go through changes, and more courage to do hard things that will ultimately make life better rather than staying forever in the same situation because in the moment, that's always the easier choice.  That's my goal for this Lenten season - have a little more faith and a little less fear.  But that's easier said than done.  How do I get there?

1.  Bible reading/ reflection - The Bible says some version of "Do not fear" more than 100 times.  My favorite is Joshua 1:9, listed above, and it's the verse I reflect on whenever we're going through a change.  God doesn't say that we won't go through nervous-making things, but He says that He will be with us and we don't need to be afraid.  Reflecting on these promises (remembering what they are, thinking about times when you've seen them come true in your own life and the lives of others) and praying for help with unbelief is by far the best way to defeat fear.  Using the example I gave above - moving to a new state - I can reflect on the fact that we we moved to the state of Virginia four years ago with a lot more unknowns hanging over our head, and God took care of us through that transition.  


2.  In the words of Nike, "Just do it."  I took Joshua to the dentist last week, and that is a very scary thing for him.  This time, as I was lifting him into the chair, the adults in the room were telling him that he was brave.  Joshua said, "I'm not brave!  I'm scared!"  (This became his mantra throughout the 30 second examination.)  And although he clearly *was* scared, he got through the appointment and he did better than he's ever done before.  I think there's an idea that really brave (or faithful) people don't feel any fear.  Maybe for some people that's true.  But I think that courage is shown in having enough faith to take actions even when you feel fearful.  And as you take big, scary steps and survive, this makes you a little less fearful the next time you take a leap of faith.  

This post ended up being a little bit of a jumble, but I would love to hear any thoughts on how to live with less fear, or your thoughts about Lent.  Or Anglicanism.  Or the dentist.  

Moving Back to the Biggest Little City & Virginia Beach love

We have a big announcement: at the end of April, our family is moving back to Reno!  Kenny accepted a job with a law firm in Nevada.  We decided to move because, for the four years we've lived in Virginia, we have greatly missed our two hometowns of Lincoln, Nebraska, and Reno, Nevada.  (This is probably not a surprise to anyone reading this blog, as we spend 4 months per year visiting the two families.)  Kenny and I are blessed to each have extended family who love us and support us, and we would love to see more of them, and they would love to see more of us - but unfortunately, both families live more than 1,000 miles away from Virginia Beach.  When we visit either one of these places, it feels like going home, and this year we reached the tipping point where we wanted to prioritize being close to family.  Kenny applied to jobs in both of our hometowns, and ultimately, a law firm in Reno was the best fit.  We put a lot of prayer and consideration into this decision, and we are both looking forward to this move.

This article ("dream job or dream community?") summarizes some of the tension we were feeling.
We moved out to Virginia mainly because it seemed like a great job opportunity for Kenny that would benefit not just him, but our whole family.  It was a great job and it did benefit our family in exactly the ways we expected - but it did not replace the community component.  We've met some wonderful people in Hampton Roads, but especially at this stage of life (full time work and young kids), it's so hard to establish the kind of deep relationships that you build over decades in your hometown, and we really missed that.  By moving back to Reno, we are looking forward to celebrating birthdays and holidays and other occasions with family members.  We looking forward to the kids spending tons of time with their grandparents, cousins, aunt, and uncle.  We are looking forward to regular date nights.  We are looking forward to getting back to the built-in network of love and support and friendship.  As the kids get older, I'm also looking forward to camping and hiking and other nature / Tahoe / northern California type adventures.  (Reno is pretty awesome.)

Prayer requests:  There are always lots of details to figure out when you move -- here are four things I would love prayer for:
1)  The actual move - getting everything packed up, driving across the country with the kids, etc.
2)  The transition - Joshua and I both have trouble with change, so we're both going to need prayers for emotional support until we get into our new routine.  (Kenny is good about embracing new opportunities immediately, and Zoey is happy anywhere as long as she is with her immediate family, although I'm sure they would also appreciate prayers.)
3)  Finding a place to live.
4)  Joshua's care - the good news is that we're mostly establishing with doctors he already saw when he was an infant.  But his diagnosis is different, our insurance is different, and now he's school (and IEP) age - so there are a lot of details to work out.

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There is definitely sadness in saying goodbye to Virginia Beach.  Kenny's job, in many ways, was everything we hoped it would be - it was a great fit for his talents and interests, and it allowed him better flexibility and time to spend with the family than any other law job would have done.

We met some great people here, particularly through the churches we attended.  We had people (sometimes who barely knew us) invite us into their homes for meals and holidays, visit us when J was in the hospital, and bring us meals when Zoey was born.  We got involved with a really fun, really faithful small group.  We learned about Anglicanism.  It's sad to say goodbye to all of you.

We were extremely pleased with the medical care, therapy, and education that Joshua received while we lived in Virginia.  When we look back on this chapter in our lives, I'm sure we will see many reasons why God had us in this seemingly random coastal city, but surely Joshua's situation was part of it.  By moving from a mountain town to a sea level city, we were able to take him off oxygen around his first birthday.  He received great care from our local children's hospital (CHKD love!), his Early Intervention therapists, and his preschool teachers.  The early years are such a critical window of time to get interventions for a person with developmental delays / disabilities, and I am so grateful for the amount and quality of services we received, and for the care we felt from all of the teachers and therapists we worked with.  If any of you are reading this, thank you for everything you did for Joshua.  It's a gift that will benefit him, and us, for the rest of our lives.

Virginia Beach is also a great place to live when you have really young kids.  The public services (libraries, parks, rec centers) are outstanding, which is especially helpful in the young kid stage.  Using my favorite format, I will conclude the blog with some lists of things that are great for families in Virginia Beach:

Best Everybody-talks-about-it-for-good-reason Attractions for Kids:

• Virginia Beach Aquarium -  i will miss you, komodo dragons and crocodile and especially shark tank with submarine room that made Joshua so very happy.
• The Beach - we frequented the Oceanfront because it was the most stroller friendly, but there are all kinds of non-touristy local beaches if miles of pizza joints are not your style.  I always wanted to get the chance to live so close to the ocean, and I'm happy that I got to live the dream for a few years.
• Virginia Zoo - lions and tigers and bears, oh my!
• Norfolk Botanical Gardens - lovely for kids and adults, great kids area with a splash park and a giant sand hill with pirate ship.
• Williamsburg - a beautiful little town that besides the famous historical area also has lots of fun shops and restaurants, a great university, and good outlet malls.
• Parks - my 3 favorites are Chesapeake City Park, Grommet Island Beach Park, and Mt. Trashmore.  If you live here with kids, you should definitely check these three out.  
• Lynnhaven Mall and MacArthur Mall - these are the two nicest malls in the region, with nice kids play areas, big food courts, and attached Barnes and Noble stores.  

Best hidden attractions for kids:

• Train Junction - at the corner of Kempsville and Providence roads.  Model trains and a train table for toddlers.  If your kid is a train lover, they will not be able to get enough of this place.
• Regent University - in warm weather, it's fun to pack a picnic and take kids walking on the green and near the fountain.
• Library storytime / Joint Use Library - We've attended library story times all over the country (thanks to our above described situation) and Virginia Beach gets the gold star for best story time.  The Joint Use Library has a coffee shop and a big kids area with lots of educational toys.
• Pembroke Mall and the Gallery at Military Circle in Norfolk - in cold weather, if your kids just need to get out some energy, these malls have big, open, climate controlled spaces and not many people walking around, so they are perfect for letting little kids run around.
• Virginia Beach Farmer's Market - another great space for kids to run around, and they frequently have festivals with farm animals, music, and bounce houses.

Seasonal things that I will miss:

• Christmas lights on the Oceanfront
• Sand-sculpting competition in the fall
• Kite festival in the spring
• Strawberry picking
• Those occasional 70 degree days in January when you can hit the beach on a whim.
• [Seasonal thing I will not miss:  when it snows 2 inches and the town shuts down for a week.]

Now that we're on a 2 month countdown, I'm trying to check a few more things off my Virginia Beach bucket list before we head west.  At the top of the list are Cape Henry Lighthouse, Shamrock Half, and eat at Captain D's.  Any other suggestions?