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Some implications of chaos theory for the genetic analysis of human development and variation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 February 2012

Lindon J Eaves ,
Katherine M Kirk ,
Nicholas G Martin  and
Robert J Russell
Lindon J Eaves
Affiliation:
Virginia Institute for Psychiatric and Behavior Genetics, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia, USA.
Katherine M Kirk*
Affiliation:
Queensland Institute of Medical Research, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. [email protected]
Nicholas G Martin
Affiliation:
Queensland Institute of Medical Research, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
Robert J Russell
Affiliation:
Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences, Berkeley, California, USA.
*
*Correspondence: Dr KM Kirk, Queensland Institute of Medical Research, Post Office, Royal Brisbane Hospital, Brisbane QLD 4029, Australia. Tel: + 61 7 3362 0272; Fax: + 61 7 3362 0101;

Abstract

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Non-linear epigenetic processes are a potential underlying source of phenotypic differences in development. Simulation studies of twin pairs using simple non-linear development models characterised by chaotic or near-chaotic behavior are presented. The effect of chaotic processes on correlations is to lower them from their initial values, but high initial correlations are affected much less by chaotic and near-chaotic processes than intermediate correlations. Therefore, we would predict that traits affected by chaotic processes would have high MZ and low DZ twin correlations and this is reminiscent of certain traits such as EEG spectra. However the much more frequent observation of MZ correlations close to twice their DZ counterparts would suggest that the role of chaos in development is quite limited.

Keywords

chaosnon-linearprocessestwinsepigenesis
Type
Articles
Information
Twin Research and Human Genetics , Volume 2 , Issue 1 , 01 February 1999 , pp. 43 - 48
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1999