PSYC 342 Lecture Notes - Lecture 18: Glucocorticoid, Vise, Insomnia

• School: McGill University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 342
• Professor: Annie Duschesne

Document Summary

Psyc 342 early life experience, stress and behaviour. Dna methyltransferase (dnmt)=responsible for dna methylation (so dnmt inhibitory prevents methylation and leads to more gene expression) Histone acetyl transferases (hats) and hdac inhibit hats leads to prevention of acetylation and less gene expression (opposite for hdac) Give male estradiol in prenatal period and block methylation you will not see female typical behaviour b/c female typical behaviour results from reduced gene expression (so by increasing gene expression you get masculinized poa with mounting behaviour) Block methylation in female (allow more gene expression) masculinization of poa. Estradiol is capable of changing gene expression but this is restricted if you block methylation (maintaining high gene expression post critical period) Finds critical period faulty: the cells are receptive for change post critical period (as seen in blocked methylation studies), it"s the hormones that can"t facilitate the change after a certain period. Low maternal lg as a proxy of early life neglect.