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Saturday, January 24, 2009

Is MAOA a Warrior Gene?

When I saw this release, I had to wonder if WWE's Ultimate Warrior should have is MAOA genotyped.  The study involved males from UCSB (where EW went to school).  Aren't all those students supposed to be super mellow?  Anyway...The students with the gene producing less MAOA (MAOA-L) displayed slightly higher levels of agression that those with the high activity gene (MAOA-H) and that a greater response was generated if the provocation was stronger (less vs. more $$ taken away).  So environment plays a role as well.  I guess the idea is that these aggressive individuals degrade neurotransmitters like dopamine, serotonin, etc faster.   I'm not sure if I'm sold on this idea as it was a pretty small study (78 males).  Interestingly, the way they thought they were able to punish the people taking their $$ was by making them eat hot sauce.  In reality, nobody had to eat hot sauce.  I love hot sauce.  Bring on the MAOA-L people and their hot sauce, baby!

1 comment:

  1. You never loved hot sauce as a child. When did you morph into a hot-sauce lover? Dad

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