| 1. |
- Munthe, Christian, 1962, et al.
(författare)
-
The Return of Lombroso? Ethical Aspects of (Visions of) Preventive Forensic Screening
- 2015
-
Ingår i: Public Health Ethics. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 1754-9973 .- 1754-9981. ; 8:3, s. 270-283
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The vision of legendary criminologist Cesare Lombroso to use scientific theories of individual causes of crime as a basis for screening and prevention programmes targeting individuals at risk for future criminal behaviour has resurfaced, following advances in genetics, neuroscience and psychiatric epidemiology. This article analyses this idea and maps its ethical implications from a public health ethical standpoint. Twenty-seven variants of the new Lombrosian vision of forensic screening and prevention are distinguished, and some scientific and technical limitations are noted. Some lures, biases and structural factors, making the application of the Lombrosian idea likely in spite of weak evidence are pointed out and noted as a specific type of ethical aspect. Many classic and complex ethical challenges for health screening programmes are shown to apply to the identified variants and the choice between them, albeit with peculiar and often provoking variations. These variations are shown to actualize an underlying theoretical conundrum in need of further study, pertaining to the relationship between public health ethics and the ethics and values of criminal law policy.
|
|
| 2. |
- Munthe, Christian, 1962
(författare)
-
Etiska aspekter på regenerativ medicin : Ethical aspects on regenerative medicine
- 2003
-
Ingår i: SNIB-konferensen 2003, Chalmers tekniska högskola, Göteborg, 16-18 maj 2003.
-
Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Inom den regenerativa medicinen strävar man efter att ersätta skadat eller sjukligt biologiskt mänskligt material (celler, organ, kroppsdelar) med nya biologiska komponenter. Området aktualiserar en rad etiska frågeställningar vad gäller (1) produktionen av ersättningsmaterialet (t.ex. embryonala stamceller eller införskaffande av transplantationsvävnad från donatorer), (2) risker i samband med försök på människa (genmodifierat material, material från djur), samt (3) gränserna för hur långt man bör gå i denna slags försök att förlänga människans livsspann. Föredraget ger en kort översikt över dessa frågeställningar, ståndpunkter och argument i debatten kring dem.
|
|
| 3. |
- de Frias, Cindy M, et al.
(författare)
-
COMT gene polymorphism is associated with declarative memory in adulthood and old age.
- 2004
-
Ingår i: Behavior genetics. - New York : Kluwer Academic Publishers. - 0001-8244 .- 1573-3297. ; 34:5, s. 533-9
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Variation in memory performance is to a large extent explained by genes. In the prefrontal cortex, the catechol O-methyltransferase (COMT) gene is essential in the metabolic degradation of dopamine, a neurotransmitter implicated in cognitive functions. The present study examined the effect of a polymorphism in the COMT gene on individual differences and changes in memory in adulthood and old age. Tests assessing episodic and semantic memory were administered to 286 men (initially aged 35-85 years) from a random sample of the population (i.e., the Betula prospective cohort study) at two occasions followed over a 5-year period. Carriers of the Met/Met genotype (with low enzyme activity) performed better on episodic and semantic memory, as compared to carriers of the Val allele (with higher enzyme activity). Division of episodic memory into its recall and recognition components showed that the difference was specific to episodic recall, not recognition tasks; an effect that was observed across three age groups (middle-age, young-old, and old-old adults) and over a 5-year period. The COMT gene is a plausible candidate gene for memory functioning in adulthood and old age.
|
|
| 4. |
- Fredrikson, Mats, et al.
(författare)
-
Different genetic factors underlie fear conditioning and episodic memory
- 2015
-
Ingår i: Psychiatric Genetics. - 0955-8829 .- 1473-5873. ; 25:4, s. 155-162
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- ObjectiveFear conditioning seems to account for the acquisition of post-traumatic stress disorder, whereas conscious recall of events in aftermath of trauma reflects episodic memory. Studies show that both fear conditioning and episodic memory are heritable, but no study has evaluated whether they reflect common or separate genetic factors. To this end, we studied episodic memory and fear conditioning in 173 healthy twin pairs using visual stimuli predicting unconditioned electric shocks.MethodsFear conditioning acquisition and extinction was determined using conditioned visual stimuli predicting unconditioned mild electric shocks, whereas electrodermal activity served as the fear learning index. Episodic memory was evaluated using cued recall of pictorial stimuli unrelated to conditioning. We used multivariate structural equation modeling to jointly analyze memory performance and acquisition as well as extinction of fear conditioning.ResultsBest-fit twin models estimated moderate genetic loadings for conditioning and memory measures, with no genetic covariation between them.ConclusionIndividual differences in fear conditioning and episodic memory reflect distinct genetically influenced processes, suggesting that the genetic risk for learning-induced anxiety disorders includes at least two memory-related genetic factors. These findings are consistent with the facts that the two separate learning forms are distant in their evolutionary development, involve different brain mechanisms, and support that genetically independent memory systems are pivotal in the development and maintenance of syndromes related to fear learning.
|
|
| 5. |
- Myrum, Craig, et al.
(författare)
-
Common variants in the ARC gene are not associated withcognitive abilities
- 2015
-
Ingår i: Brain and Behavior. - : Wiley. - 2162-3279 .- 2162-3279. ; 5:10
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Introduction: The Activity-Regulated Cytoskeleton-associated (ARC) gene encodes a protein that is critical for the consolidation of synaptic plasticity and long-term memory formation. Given ARC's key role in synaptic plasticity, we hypothesized that genetic variations in ARC may contribute to interindividual variability in human cognitive abilities or to attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) susceptibility, where cognitive impairment often accompanies the disorder. Methods: We tested whether ARC variants are associated with six measures of cognitive functioning in 670 healthy subjects in the Norwegian Cognitive NeuroGenetics (NCNG) by extracting data from its Genome-Wide Association Study (GWAS). In addition, the Swedish Betula sample of 1800 healthy subjects who underwent similar cognitive testing was also tested for association with 19 tag SNPs. Results: No ARC variants show association at the study-wide level, but several markers show a trend toward association with human cognitive functions. We also tested for association between ARCSNPs and ADHD in a Norwegian sample of cases and controls, but found no significant associations. Conclusion: This study suggests that common genetic variants located in ARC do not account for variance in human cognitive abilities, though small effects cannot be ruled out.
|
|
| 6. |
- Andersson, Evelyn, et al.
(författare)
-
Genetic Polymorphisms in Monoamine Systems and Outcome of Cognitive Behavior Therapy for Social Anxiety Disorder
- 2013
-
Ingår i: PLOS ONE. - : Public Library of Science (PLoS). - 1932-6203. ; 8:11
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- ObjectiveThe role of genetics for predicting the response to cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) for social anxiety disorder (SAD) has only been studied in one previous investigation. The serotonin transporter (5-HTTLPR), the catechol-o-methyltransferase (COMT) val158met, and the tryptophan hydroxylase-2 (TPH2) G-703Tpolymorphisms are implicated in the regulation of amygdala reactivity and fear extinction and therefore might be of relevance for CBT outcome. The aim of the present study was to investigate if these three gene variants predicted response to CBT in a large sample of SAD patients.MethodParticipants were recruited from two separate randomized controlled CBT trials (trial 1: n = 112, trial 2: n = 202). Genotyping were performed on DNA extracted from blood or saliva samples. Effects were analyzed at follow-up (6 or 12 months after treatment) for both groups and for each group separately at post-treatment. The main outcome measure was the Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale Self-Report.ResultsAt long-term follow-up, there was no effect of any genotype, or gene × gene interactions, on treatment response. In the subsamples, there was time by genotype interaction effects indicating an influence of the TPH2 G-703T-polymorphism on CBT short-term response, however the direction of the effect was not consistent across trials.ConclusionsNone of the three gene variants, 5-HTTLPR, COMTval158met and TPH2 G-703T, was associated with long-term response to CBT for SAD.
|
|
| 7. |
- Munthe, Christian, 1962
(författare)
-
The Return of Lombroso? Ethical and Philosophical Aspects of (Visions of) Forensic Screening
- 2013
-
Ingår i: 33rd International Congress of Law and Mental Health, Amsterdam, July 14-19, 2013.
-
Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Italian nineteenth century criminologist Cesare Lombroso is notorious for his seminal ideas about criminality and anti-social behaviour resulting from physiological anomalies that should be detected by society and used for forensic preventive purposes. After an extended period of disrepute following World War II, similar ideas have been resurrected in psychiatry, genetics, neurology and criminology in the past decade or two. In particular, there is a growing focus on early detection and application of preventive measures. This development actualizes a complex web of ethics and policy issues having to do with the well-known fact that screening and prevention in the health area are far from ethically clear-cut activities and actualize vivid prospects of doing extensive harm to individuals as well as society. Also, taken to its extreme, it actualizes the idea of using prenatal or preimplantation testing to preselect against children with a predisposition for criminal or antisocial behaviour. In the forensic case, such screening-prevention strategies will connect further to a complicated issue about the proper use of risk-assessment models for societal decision-making for precautionary purposes. Based on former work in all of these areas, this presentation will outline and analyze the basic issue of the defensibility of activities of this sort, with the perspective of forestalling unintentional harm to individuals and society.
|
|
| 8. |
|
|
| 9. |
|
|
| 10. |
|
|
