The importance of cultural inheritance in psychiatric genetics.
Cultural inheritance, a genetic-based inheritance system transmitted by the brain, has previously been proposed to underlie normal behaviour and mental disorders. In cultural inheritance epigenetic mechanisms are involved in gene expression. This paper proposes that since there are marked epigenetic mechanisms involved in the expression of genes underlying primary (idiopathic) mental disorders, epimutations, rather than genetic mutations, underlie these disorders.
Peedicayil
J
J
Department of Pharmacology, Christian Medical College and Hospital, Vellore, India. jpeedicayil@hotmail.com
D000818:Animals; D005075:Biological Evolution; D003468:Cultural Evolution; D003469:Culture; D005824:Genetics, Behavioral; D006801:Humans; D008957:Models, Genetic; D008960:Models, Psychological