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is there any science on how reflexes / behaviors are encoded in the genome? have labs successfully changed these? I'm familiar with a prenatal brain surgery th

• xg15 7y ago
  (Not a biologist by any stretch, so the following is speculation) As for reflexes, don't we kow how they work on an anatomical/neural level in a grown adult? From my high school biology lessions, I remember that for certain reflexes, there are nerves that directly connect "sensors" to motor neurons in the spinal cord, bypassing the brain altogether. If you stick to the "genes as a program" metaphor, "encoding" this reflex in the genome would mean that the genome contains the correct triggers and "subroutines" (i.e. as cascades of gene expression) so that a particular group of cells will form that nerve and connect it to the correct other neurons.