The biology of behaviour: scientific and ethical implications

The human brain is the most complex of all biological organs; it not only gives rise to consciousness—that most fascinating but elusive phenomenon—but also mediates our behavioural responses. The structure of the brain and its higher cognitive functions are the product of evolutionary history, embedded within the genome. One of the great scientific challenges today is therefore to integrate the results from two different lines of investigation into the biology of behaviour—using genes and the brain—with the goal of bringing both to a deeper level of understanding.Modern biology has taught us how genes and genomes serve as blueprints for all living organisms. Not only physiology, but also some forms of behaviour seem to be innate or predisposed by genes. Today, most scientists agree that genes alone do not cause behaviour, but merely influence how an individual will react to a particular set of environmental and biographical circumstances. Genes are seen as determinants of behaviour insofar as they code for the assembly of the neural circuits that are necessary for the development and survival of the organism. But how does the brain, which owes its functional structure partly to the concerted action of genes, give rise to or cause behaviour? These were some of the questions that were addressed at the seventh European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL)/European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) joint science and society conference on ‘Genes, Brain/Mind and Behaviour’, held on 3–4 November 2006 at the EMBL in Heidelberg, Germany, which are discussed further in this special issue of EMBO reports .Basic research on behavioural genetics is thriving. Researchers have developed powerful tools to disentangle the underlying complexity between genes and behaviour, and are amassing a body of knowledge about how phenotypic variation relates to and influences distinct patterns of behaviour. Although researchers recognize the importance of …