The relationship between methylation of dopamine-related genes, family environment and creativity

Abstract: Although the debate over “nature versus nurture” has been an intense focus of creativity research and great efforts have been made to identify genes and environmental factors that contribute to creativity, the molecular biological mechanisms by which environment and gene-environment interaction may influence creativity are still unknown. Recently, with the development of epigenetic studies, identification of the epigenetic basis of complex traits and behaviors has been one of the leading issues in psychological research. As a potential mediator between environment and genome, the epigenetic approach provides an opportunity to reveal how the complex interactions of genes, epigenetics and environment give rise to individual differences in creativity. Based on this notion, by investigating the relationship between methylation of dopamine-related genes, family environment and creativity, the present study aims to reveal the epigenetic basis of creativity and the molecular biological mechanisms by which environment and gene-environment interaction may influence creativity. To this purpose, the present study employs a two-stage design. Stage 1 is designed to systematically investigate the association between methylation of dopamine-related genes and creativity, and aims to identify the gene whose methylation is associated with creativity. Stage 2 focuses on the identified gene whose methylation is associated with creativity, and is designed to investigate the relationship between family environment, genotypes, methylation and creativity. It is expected that findings of the present study would help to demonstrate the epigenetic basis of creativity and to provide important insight into the mechanisms by which genes and environmental factors interplay with each other to influence creativity. "