Comments on: Scientists Use Game Theory to Determine the Importance of Individual Genes http://mindyourdecisions.com/blog/2008/07/01/scientists-use-game-theory-to-determine-the-importance-of-individual-genes/ Articles on game theory and personal finance Sun, 20 May 2012 23:31:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 By: Presh Talwalkar http://mindyourdecisions.com/blog/2008/07/01/scientists-use-game-theory-to-determine-the-importance-of-individual-genes/comment-page-1/#comment-2061 Presh Talwalkar Fri, 04 Jul 2008 04:31:21 +0000 http://mindyourdecisions.com/blog/2008/07/01/scientists-use-game-theory-to-determine-the-importance-of-individual-genes/#comment-2061 <b><em>Christina</b></em>: Thanks for those illuminating facts about the brain. The story about foreign languages really makes me think twice about media reported discoveries. Christina: Thanks for those illuminating facts about the brain. The story about foreign languages really makes me think twice about media reported discoveries.

]]> By: Christina http://mindyourdecisions.com/blog/2008/07/01/scientists-use-game-theory-to-determine-the-importance-of-individual-genes/comment-page-1/#comment-2058 Christina Thu, 03 Jul 2008 23:17:02 +0000 http://mindyourdecisions.com/blog/2008/07/01/scientists-use-game-theory-to-determine-the-importance-of-individual-genes/#comment-2058 I just took a PSYCH class called the Brain and the Mind that also discussed (A LOT) about how you should be wary of articles that claimed they'd found the gene for religion, happiness, altruism, Rohit-like personalities, etc. My professor said to be wary, also, of studies that claim that they've found the location in the brain for those types of things. He said they did a study on the location of the brain for foreign languages, and thought that they had it. What they discovered later was that that was only for people who weren't very good at foreign languages, and people who spoke them fluently used a whole different area of the brain. What I did get from the class was that single "knockout" gene studies are useful to an extent, because even if you might not necessarily know the WHOLE picture, you would at least find out that that gene is related somehow. I just took a PSYCH class called the Brain and the Mind that also discussed (A LOT) about how you should be wary of articles that claimed they’d found the gene for religion, happiness, altruism, Rohit-like personalities, etc.

My professor said to be wary, also, of studies that claim that they’ve found the location in the brain for those types of things. He said they did a study on the location of the brain for foreign languages, and thought that they had it. What they discovered later was that that was only for people who weren’t very good at foreign languages, and people who spoke them fluently used a whole different area of the brain.

What I did get from the class was that single “knockout” gene studies are useful to an extent, because even if you might not necessarily know the WHOLE picture, you would at least find out that that gene is related somehow.

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