Experience Alters Gene Expression

Professor Eric Kandel explains that events in the environment can have profound effects on gene expression and brain anatomy.

One of the astonishing things to emerge from the study of learning and memory is that genes are not simply the masters of behavior, the controllers of behavior, they are also the servants of environment. When you learn something and put it into long-term memory, you alter gene expression, giving rise to alterations in the anatomy of the brain. When an environmental event occurs, like a catastrophe, it has profound effects on gene expression in the brain and on anatomical changes in the brain.