A deeper meaning lies beneath the surface of the complex dance of human emotions. Our genetic composition has a significant role in shaping our feelings in addition to the experiences we have had. Known as "Genetics x Emotion," this exciting topic that combines genetics and emotion has the potential to completely transform our knowledge of human behavior and mental health.
The essence of the human experience is emotion, which shapes how we react to the outside environment. The complex interplay between emotions and genetics has received much attention in research recently, despite the fact that these relationships have long been understood to be vital to human existence. Advances in research reveal that our genetic makeup intricately encodes our emotional experiences. Positive and negative emotions alike have hereditary roots; our genetic makeup contains traces of Joy, Disgust, Anger, Fear, and Sadness, among other emotions.
Joy
It is now established that there is a genetic component to joy, that bright and uplifting emotion. Positive emotions have been linked to a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) rs322931. This particular SNP is connected to microRNA (miR-181a) that is involved in drug addiction behavior in rodents and the reward system of the human brain (Wingo et al., 2016). It was observed that individuals with the positive emotion-associated SNP reacted more to positive stimuli and startled less to fear while those with the negative emotion-associated SNP did not change their startle response to fear. It appears that joy is more than just a transient emotion and that it has a genetic signature that affects how we see the world. This newfound knowledge provides insight into the underlying molecular basis of happiness, indicating that experiencing happy emotions has unique genetic foundations.
Disgust
Conversely, disgust is an emotion that is typically depicted as sensitivity to something unpleasant. Our aversion to pathogen-related stimuli and behavior has led us to avoid the contraction of diseases, which makes the emotion of disgust an evolutionary survival instinct in humans. In a twin study by Tybur et al. (2020), it was revealed that disgust proneness and contamination sensitivity are 34% and 40% genetic, respectively. Moreover, the two traits are correlated and have overlapping genetic and unshared environmental contributions of 54% (Tybur et al., 2020). Hence, this suggests that our inclination to feel disgust is also influenced by the ever-changing environment.
Anger
Characterized as a strong and overwhelming negative emotion, anger is an adaptive emotion in response to environmental stimuli. There are three ways to express anger: (1) anger-in or concealment of anger inside oneself; (2) anger-out or aggressive expression of anger either by physical or verbal means; and (3) anger-control or preservation of calmness despite emotional distress. A twin study on anger expression conducted by Wang et al. (2005) suggests that genetics moderately influences the scale of anger and that unique environmental experiences also contribute to this emotion. Meanwhile, John Henryism is an active coping strategy against environmental and psychosocial stressors by expending high levels of effort at great cost to health; the trait is estimated to be heritable by 34%.
Fear
Fear is another basic emotion essential to our survival as a species. It turns out that fear is a genetic feature shared by many organisms such as mice and humans. A complicated web of genes interacts to govern fear, with neurotransmitters GABA and serotonin playing a major role in this process. These chemicals function in nerve cell communication and greatly impact how our brains react to things that scare us. Because fear is such a complicated emotion, its genetic basis is not that simple but it may be possible to design treatment strategies for fear-related diseases such as generalized anxiety and specific phobias by having a better understanding of the genetic basis of fear.
Sadness
Moreover, depression is tightly linked to sadness and has a strong inherited component. The genes that regulate neurotransmitters have a major role in controlling anxiety and depression. Variations in the neurotransmitter receptors that govern an individual's mood can influence the degree of depression and hopelessness they experience. An important neurotransmitter in the research of depression and melancholy is serotonin (Hasler, 2010). Individual differences in symptoms of depression and anxiety are strongly correlated with genetic variations in the serotonin-clearing receptors between neurons. The complicated web of genes that are associated with various types of neurotransmitters and their receptors explains the genetic aspect of depression. People who inherit specific gene variants from their parents may be more or less likely to experience grief in response to life's challenges. One particular gene variant that is associated with depression is NEGR1 which functions as a neural growth regulator in the hypothalamus (Levey et al., 2021). Further, the same researchers mapped 178 genomic risk loci revealing the complex genetic architecture of depression.
Nature vs. Nurture
Through the exploration of hidden genes that underpin our emotions, scientists are learning more about how these potent emotions are inherited. Heredity can have a big impact on our tendency toward particular emotions; life satisfaction or propensity to be happy is heritable by 30-40% (Røysamb et al., 2018). However, genetics do not solely govern our feelings as the environment plays a substantial role in this dynamic interplay. For instance, the extent to which a person's life is impacted by their innate susceptibility to fear and anxiety largely relies on their unique experiences, including the quantity, intensity, kind, and length of traumatic events. Though the proportion of genetic and environmental influences over each emotion varies, our tendency to feel happy, sad, or any feeling in the spectrum of human emotion is both heritable and changeable – an important reminder as we make decisions and move forward in life.
In summary, the complex and sophisticated network known as the genetic code of emotions shapes our emotional reactions to the outer environment. Our understanding of how emotions arise is aided by knowing the genetic foundation of several emotions, including fear, anger, disgust, joy, and sadness. Though these genes are crucial, it is important to keep in mind that environment and heredity work together to build our emotional lives. Emotions are a hybrid of nature and nurture, a genetic symphony with life experiences acting as the director. Comprehending these genetic foundations of emotions enhances our understanding of human behavior and may lead to novel treatments in mental health and wellbeing. The complex tapestry of the human emotional experience, which blends old evolutionary legacies with new genetic insights, becomes more apparent as we learn more about the genetic makeup of emotions.
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