Behavioral Genetics in the Postgenomic Era

The Human Genome Project-which has provided a working draft of the sequence of DNA in the human genome - is a remarkable scientific achievement. In this "postgenomic" world, it appears that all genes and all DNA variation will eventually be known. For behavioral researchers, this is especially exciting because behavioral dimensions and disorders are the most complex traits of all. To understand these traits, we need to understand the roles of many genes and many environmental influences. This book assesses the present and future of genetic research on behaviour. The editors have assembled a group of distinguished contributors to assess both the progress and the promise of quantitative and molecular genetic analysis of behaviour. Particularly significant are new techniques that have made it possible to identify genes for complex quantitative traits. "Behavioral Genetics in the Postgenomic Era" focuses on those aspects of behaviour about which behavioral genetics reveals the most. These include cognitive abilities and disabilities, personality, psychopathology, and psychopharmacology. This book should appeal not just to psychologists and psychiatrists, but to anyone in the behavioral, biomedical, and biological sciences interested in the genetics of behaviour.