Still More on Education: Epigenetics
Some of you may recall an entry of mine a few years ago in which I described research that shows that the dogma of biology that says that who we are comes primarily from our genes is lacking. A new field of "epigenetics" has been started to study changes in expression of genes as opposed to simply whether genes are there or not. (In other words, this is like investigating whether the light switch in the room is on or off as opposed to investigating which light bulb it activates.)
In that entry, I shared some studies that showed that what mice mothers ate could affect the phenotype of their offspring for as long as 40 generations![1]
This implies that a mother can actually harm or benefit her offspring from the way she eats -- even if she is not pregnant.
How does this relate to education?
Well, for a long time, I have argued that people have a responsibility to the rest of culture to educate themselves.
It turns out that a recent study has shown that -- just as in the eating study -- mice mothers who are "educated" as young mice later produce offspring who learn things more quickly.
How are mice educated? They are simply given more toys and things to do in their cages, more things to explore and solve.
Even though the learning occurs in the mice long before they become mothers, the epigenetic changes are still passed on.
It definitely was not how these "educated" mice raised their young, because they switched the baby mice at birth and had them raised by "uneducated" mothers. These switched mice still excelled.
The scientists studied the brains of both mother and offspring mice. When mice (or people) learn things, new connections are made in the brain that are observable. Mice born from "educated" mothers had more with these connections already in place. They inherited the brain mapping from their mothers.
But if these 2nd-generation mice were not educated, the 3rd generation no longer saw a benefit.
No one really understands how this works, but they assume it is through increased hormone production in "educated" mice that turns on or off genes in developing mice embryos.
So we can add this to the list of reasons to educate oneself. Not only is it better for the society in which one finds herself, but it is also better for her children.
Source:
http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSTRE51271Z20090204?feedType=RSS&feedName=scienceNews&pageNumber=2&virtualBrandChannel=0
In that entry, I shared some studies that showed that what mice mothers ate could affect the phenotype of their offspring for as long as 40 generations![1]
This implies that a mother can actually harm or benefit her offspring from the way she eats -- even if she is not pregnant.
How does this relate to education?
Well, for a long time, I have argued that people have a responsibility to the rest of culture to educate themselves.
It turns out that a recent study has shown that -- just as in the eating study -- mice mothers who are "educated" as young mice later produce offspring who learn things more quickly.
How are mice educated? They are simply given more toys and things to do in their cages, more things to explore and solve.
Even though the learning occurs in the mice long before they become mothers, the epigenetic changes are still passed on.
It definitely was not how these "educated" mice raised their young, because they switched the baby mice at birth and had them raised by "uneducated" mothers. These switched mice still excelled.
The scientists studied the brains of both mother and offspring mice. When mice (or people) learn things, new connections are made in the brain that are observable. Mice born from "educated" mothers had more with these connections already in place. They inherited the brain mapping from their mothers.
But if these 2nd-generation mice were not educated, the 3rd generation no longer saw a benefit.
No one really understands how this works, but they assume it is through increased hormone production in "educated" mice that turns on or off genes in developing mice embryos.
So we can add this to the list of reasons to educate oneself. Not only is it better for the society in which one finds herself, but it is also better for her children.
Source:
http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSTRE51271Z20090204?feedType=RSS&feedName=scienceNews&pageNumber=2&virtualBrandChannel=0