S5.14 Genes, brains and the mind: How much of your personality is encoded in your DNA?

Hello, and welcome to Genetics Unzipped - the Genetics Society podcast, with me, Dr Sally Le Page. In this episode we’re exploring genes, brains and the mind, as we ask how much of our personality is innate, and whether anything we do as adults can change who we fundamentally are.

We all love a good personality quiz. Whether it’s something formal, like the Myers-Briggs test, or less formal, like “Which Harry Potter animal are you?”, there’s something very reassuring about being able to summarise the many facets of our personalities into a simple descriptor.

But where does our personality come from? Obviously our brains have a lot to do with it, but is it genetic differences in our brains that lead to differences in how we think? Is it all in our upbringing and childhood experiences? Or is it something else?

Kevin Mitchell, image courtesy of Kevin Mitchell

Kevin Mitchell: how much of our personality is innate?

To tackle this question, I sat down with Kevin Mitchell, an Associate Professor of Genetics and Neuroscience at Trinity College Dublin. In 2018, he wrote a book on the subject called Innate: How the wiring of our brains shapes who we are. So to begin our discussion, I wanted to know what was happening in 2018 that made him want to write this book. Click here to find out what he had to say…

That’s all for now. Thanks to Kevin Mitchell, and his book, Innate: How the wiring of our brains shapes who we are, is available in all good bookshops, evil bookshops, and even some chaotic neutral bookshops.

We’ll be back next time taking a look at whether size really does matter - when it comes to your genes and genome, that is - and whether it’s a good idea not to eat anything with more genes than you.

For more information about this podcast including show notes, transcripts, links, references, music credits and everything else head over to geneticsunzipped.com You can find us on Twitter @geneticsunzip and please do take a moment to rate and review us on Apple podcasts - it really makes a difference and helps more people discover the show.

This episode of Genetics Unzipped was written, presented and produced by me, Sally Le Page. It is made by First Create the Media for The Genetics Society - one of the oldest learned societies in the world dedicated to supporting and promoting the research, teaching and application of genetics. You can find out more and apply to join at genetics.org.uk.  Our theme music was composed by Dan Pollard, and the logo was designed by James Mayall. Thanks for listening, and until next time, goodbye.