Ramblings from Another Side

On How All Roads Can Lead to the Debate of Nature versus Nurture or (inevitably) FRINGE

I was visiting my high school yesterday and was having a fun and thought-provoking (as usual, on both counts) chat with my former Biology and English teachers. I quoted my mother, at one point, which prompted both women to start laughing. It turns out that they started laughing at what I said because, as they quickly made me aware, not only did I quote my mom, I even mimicked her facial expressions. Facial expressions that were, apparently, different enough from my own that both noticed and pointed it out. I should mention, my both teachers taught me for the first, but not last, time in 2004 and I have remained close to both since I graduated in 2007. So they definitely know me well enough to have learned my mannerisms.

This – since I am a bio nerd through-and-through – prompted me to put forth the question: was my mimicking due to nature or nurture? The explanation on which I decided, after debating with my sister, is that it must be (as so many things are) a combination of the two.

It is nurture for the easy reason that I am around my family enough to pick up their mannerisms and quirks. And also due to the fact that we tend to actually pick these up from others not related to us as well – at least I do.

Defending the nature explanation is a little harder, but I like my take on it nevertheless. Genetics determines what proteins are produced, which determines – to some degree – our brain structures, which ultimately controls our behaviour and mannerisms. And how is it that nature doesn’t determine brain structures entirely? It is our environment that writes and constantly rewrites the neural pathways of our brains in a process triggered by our surroundings.

This ended up being longer than I expected (shocking, I know!) so you’ll actually have to see my upcoming post to hear how “nature versus nurture” brings FRINGE to mind. Stay tuned…