• PDF / 11,183,819 Bytes
• 557 Pages / 595.28 x 790.87 pts Page_size
• 48 Downloads / 308 Views

DOWNLOAD

REPORT

---

Yong-Kyu Kim Editor

Handbook of Behavior Genetics

123

Editor Yong-Kyu Kim University of Georgia Athens, GA USA [email protected]

ISBN 978-0-387-76726-0 e-ISBN 978-0-387-76727-7 DOI 10.1007/978-0-387-76727-7 Library of Congress Control Number: 2008941695 c Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2009  All rights reserved. This work may not be translated or copied in whole or in part without the written permission of the publisher (Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, 233 Spring Street, New York, NY 10013, USA), except for brief excerpts in connection with reviews or scholarly analysis. Use in connection with any form of information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed is forbidden. The use in this publication of trade names, trademarks, service marks, and similar terms, even if they are not identified as such, is not to be taken as an expression of opinion as to whether or not they are subject to proprietary rights. While the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of going to press, neither the authors nor the editors nor the publisher can accept any legal responsibility for any errors or omissions that may be made. The publisher makes no warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein. Printed on acid-free paper springer.com

Dedicated to my teachers

Preface

Behavior genetics is an interdisciplinary area combining the behavioral sciences and genetics. The study of behavior genetics has become increasingly important as we see growth spurts in finding genes involved in complex behaviors following on advances in molecular genetic techniques. This domain has been growing rapidly since the 1970s and increasingly receives attention from many different disciplines. It has now become a vast common ground for scientists from very diverse fields including psychology, psychiatry, neurology, endocrinology, biochemistry, neuroimaging, and genetics. When I was invited to organize this book by Springer, I was preparing for a new course, Behavior Genetics, at the University of Georgia in fall, 2005. Only a few textbooks were available at that time, but I could not find good references for graduate students and scientists. I thought that we needed to offer research guides to the studies of genetic and environmental influences on a variety of complex behaviors in humans and animals. I had little idea about the proper scope for such a book. I contacted senior colleagues of the Behavior Genetics Association and they gave me excellent advice. I initially invited contributors who were largely members of the Behavior Genetics Association and the handbook was outlined with 14 chapters. As the Handbook developed, it became clear that the first draft was not sufficient to cover all important domains in behavior genetics. In the second meeting with contributors during the BGA meeting in Hollywood, CA, we discussed expanding the handbook to other related do