Word: mao
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Since the early 1990s, science has suggested a link between antisocial behavior and a defect in the gene that codes for an enzyme called monoamine oxidase A (MAO-A). A low level of activity on the MAO-A gene results in an excessive breakdown of neurotransmitters, such as serotonin, which helps keep humans calm and happy. The defect thereby increases the urge to react aggressively to threats or fears, leading MAO-A to be referred to as the "warrior" gene. (See 20 ways to get and stay happy...
...latest research, however, takes the association one step further. It is the first to link low activity on the MAO-A allele in young men both to an increased likelihood of joining a gang and to a greater tendency to use weapons and violence. "For the first time, we were able to establish a direct connection between the MAO-A gene and the choosing of a violent lifestyle," says Kevin Beaver, a biosocial criminologist at FSU and lead author of the study published in Comprehensive Psychiatry...
...nearly 2,500 participants in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, the largest and most comprehensive survey of health-related behavior among adolescents between 7th and 12th grade, which started in 1994. Slightly more than half of the study's male participants had low-level activity on the MAO-A gene, and about 3% of the total pool reported having joined a named gang in the past year. (See pictures of gangs in New Zealand...
Beaver and his colleagues found that those males carrying the low-active MAO-A gene were nearly twice as likely to join an organized gang than males with the high-active gene, and when in a fight, they were nearly twice as likely to brandish a weapon. Of the gang members studied, those who had a low-activity MAO-A allele were more than four times more likely to use a weapon when compared with male gang members who carried a high-activity version of the allele. "At the very least this suggests a genetic risk factor that can help...
...hour fast of his own, setting up camp outside a busy shopping center in Hong Kong's Times Square, some 1,240 miles (2,000 km) from Beijing. As he stood in his small, blue booth flanked by fellow students, a gigantic television screen - not a portrait of Chairman Mao - watched over him. But as Fan greeted the commuters and shopkeepers who passed by, he glowed with the same nervous energy, the same youthful optimism, of those who came before. His goal: "To keep their memory alive...