As a reminder, like all the other Filters discussed (i.e. the instincts, behavioral preferences, default ways of interpreting our environment and the way we interact with it, etc.), the Habit Formation Personality Spectrum Ensemble, is not at all likely to be understood as a trait solely via the expression of one gene. Rather, multiple genes, in concert with multiple other filters are likely necessary to understand completely the Habit Formation Ensemble. It is the result of an ensemble of components - their presence and their expressions. Including the environment itself.

Specifically, increasing evidence suggests that varied susceptibilities to addictions are genetically heterogeneous. ConserveLiberty suggests that such findings would be expected for addiction (or more generally habit formation). Habit formation, through one mechanism or another, is likely a "behavioral" trait that extends through the lineage of life all the way to the very beginning of the phenomenon of "the living". For example, from the very beginning, it would have been absolutely essential that the living process:

• continue to "acquire" nutrients to sustain itself as "alive",
• reproduce, if for no other reason than that all organization, of any sort, has a finite length of time that it is what it is until variation of one sort or another renders it "expired", and
• maintain whatever processes (in ensemble) that rendered the collection of biochemically "active" material "alive" as effectively and synergistically functional as possible. Long enough to find additional sustenance and to reproduce.

It is not known what would have driven those earliest of habits. Without whatever those drivers were, even as randomly accidental as they may have originally (or not) occurred, then whatever was the "first" arrangement of chemistry that constituted the first example of "alive" (either within the universe or upon the earth) would have eventually expired sometime afterward, and probably sometime 3.5 billion years ago or before. Thus, anything here alive today is in part due to "habits" that formed very early on. Habits, by the meaning of the word, with the tendency to continue. Anthropomorphically speaking - driven.

As it is, The Living on this planet, taken all together as one very complex and extended lineage with its start in the very beginning, and extending onward through time and location to the millions of extensions in existence today, has been very resilient through all sorts of environmental changes, ranging from gradual to catastrophic. Quite a bit of extinction has occurred, but the variance with which the Living Lineage is able to generate within itself, and its nearly irresistible Habit for living and reproducing, has resulted in the living lineage continuing on earth for at least 3.5 billion years.

That's quite a Habit! The manner in which identifying and establishing which behaviors should be maintained (selective for survival) has evolved as well. Some of these behaviors eventually established themselves as biologically developed and genetically maintained instincts.

Instincts - Urges that "come naturally", with no learning required after birth in order for them to emerge naturally when the time is right.

Other behaviors are learned. Does the biological individual have machinery that identifies which behaviors should be embraced and maintained?

For many "higher" organisms, such as humankind and others, the behaviors selected for Habit Formation (or, Addiction) are those that result in the stimulation of the reward centers in the brain. As it turns out, whether or not they are actually selective for survivability.

Importantly, while Habit Formation is helpful for maintaining Learned Behaviors and likely developed as a mechanism to make desirable behaviors more permanent when learned ... it is also true that Habit Formation is an independently developed trait. Thus, Habit Formation can occur with behaviors that may not necessarily be required for extending survival until reproduction. If other behaviors for whatever reason also stimulate the reward centers, they will also generally become candidates for Habit Formation.

Learned behaviors - those not implemented through genetic programming as natural instincts (present or latently present from birth or before)

It is therefore important for anyone wanting:

• to maintain an enhanced ability for adaptive decision making, and
• to avoid addictions that may be both difficult to break, but also unhealthy and many times lethal

... understand how Addiction and Habit Formation occurs, and to avoid Habit Formation with behaviors that are otherwise not desired.

Why? Because, the "math" of Addiction is such that once Addicted, you are going to find yourself in a "new cognitive paradigm" where it will NOT at all be easy for you to break your addiction, whether or not you may decide that you want to. The Habit Formation Ensemble was built to "make more permanent" behaviors that have been identified as "desirable". It was NOT designed to lessen or alter in any way behaviors that we may wish to change or eliminate. In fact, the Habit Formation Ensemble, when invoked, works to prevent the suppression of the addicted behaviors.

As far as the body is desired, "desirable" is identified strictly as "positively stimulates the brain's reward center". Whether or not that is truly desired is something one needs to determine PRIOR to addiction.

Nature has its own way for taking care of "unfortunate mistakes" that can be made. In this case, addictions having deleterious consequences. Nature's solution is "Evolution", and evolution eliminates "unfortunate mistakes" eventually via "death before procreation". And, while that may not sound like comfortable news for an individual whose priority may be to maintain one's own life for as long as possible, the fact of the matter is that nature's way of culling "deleterious mistakes" has worked out wonderfully for maintaining the current lineage on this planet for 3.5 billion years.

That's quite a success record!

Recurrence risk data are also consistent with monogenic inheritance of addiction tendencies in a proportion of people with various identified types of addictions, but with different alleles for different families. Except for a very few gene products, however, it has been difficult to identify very many of the actual players in the "Formation of Habits and Addictions".

A few identified genetic components impacting Addiction have been identified, and thus are candidates as part of the Habit Formation Personality Spectrum Ensemble. Selected links to representative research on these and others will be added in subsequent versions of this chapter:

• RelA (Transcription factor p65) - the NF-κB p65 subunit, involved in NF-κB heterodimer formation
• p50 - a DNA binding subunit of the NF-kappaB (NF-κB) protein complex
• NF-κB - a heterodimer between the RelA and p50 proteins. When activated, NF-κB is translocated into the nucleus where it binds to specific sequences of DNA called response elements (RE). The DNA/NF-κB complex then recruits other proteins such as coactivators and RNA polymerase, which transcribe downstream DNA into mRNA, which, in turn, is translated into protein, which results in a change of cell function.
• IκBα (inhibitor of kappa B) - IκBα inhibits NF-κB by masking the nuclear localization signals (NLS) of NF-κB proteins and keeping them sequestered in an inactive state in the cytoplasm.
• IKK - (IκB kinase) - phosphorylates the inhibitory IκBα protein, which results in dissociation of IκBα from NF-κB, and eventual degradation of IκBα by the proteosome. NF-κB is now free to migrate into the nucleus and activates the expression of at least 150 genes.
• c-Fos - a proto-oncogene. Part of a bigger Fos family of transcription factors which includes c-Fos, FosB, Fra-1 and Fra-2. Accumbal c-Fos repression by ΔFosB's AP-1 complex acts as a molecular switch for the long-term induction of ΔFosB, thus allowing it to accumulate in dopamine D1-type medium spiny neurons.
  
  
• Dopamine - In the brain, dopamine functions as a neurotransmitter. The brain includes several distinct dopamine pathways, one of which plays a major role in reward-motivated behavior.
  
  
• Glutamate - The most abundant neurotransmitter in the vertebrate nervous system. It is used by every major excitatory information-transmitting pathway in the vertebrate brain.
  
• CREB (cAMP response element binding protein) - Phosphorylated CREB increases levels of ΔFosB. Postsynaptic receptors for dopamine and glutamate trigger internal signaling events through a cAMP pathway and calcium-dependent pathway that ultimately result in increased CREB phosphorylation. (Info on function involvement).
• ΔFosB - One of the master control proteins that produces addiction-related structural changes in the brain, and upon sufficient accumulation, with the help of its downstream targets (e.g., nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB)), it induces an addictive state. Represses the c-Fos gene with the help of corepressors. Represses dynorphin gene expression. A highly stable (phosphorylated) form of ΔFosB, one that persists in neurons for one or two months, → slowly accumulates following repeated high-dose exposure ← to stimulants through this process.
• GluA2 - In humans, encoded by the GRIA2 gene. An AMPA glutamate receptor subunit, induced in nucleus accumbens by ΔFosB
• Dynorphin - An opioid peptide. Another candidate target gene of ΔFosB in nucleus accumbens. Also a candidate target gene of CREB. Induction of ΔFosB represses dynorphin gene expression in nucleus accumbens. Dynorphin is thought to inhibit dopaminergic transmission, thereby downregulating reward mechanisms.
• Cdk5 (cyclin-dependent kinase-5) - induced in the nucleus accumbens by ΔFosB
• ICER (inducible cyclic AMP repressor) - Example: Amphetamine induces ICER expression in nucleus accumbens
• MEF2 (Myocyte enhancing factor-2)
• Glucocorticoid receptor
• NAC1 (nucleus accumbens 1 transcription factor) - referred to at this link as Nucleus accumbens-associated protein 1 coded by the NACC1 gene. Uncertain if these are equivalent as of this posting.
• ΔJunD - a transcription factor, opposes the function and induction of ΔFosB. In the nucleus accumbens, ΔJunD directly opposes many of the neurological changes that occur in addiction.
• G9a - Euchromatic histone-lysine N-methyltransferase 2 (EHMT2). A histone methyltransferase, opposes the function and induction of ΔFosB. Is suppressed by ΔFosB. G9a exerts opposite effects to that of ΔFosB on drug-related behavior (e.g., self-administration) and synaptic remodeling (e.g., dendritic arborization - the development of additional tree-like dendritic branches and spines) in the nucleus accumbens, and therefore opposes ΔFosB's function as well as increases in its expression.
• Transcriptional Mechanisms of Drug Addiction, Clin Psychopharmacol Neurosci. 2012 Dec; 10(3): 136-143.

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Many of the filters that we have already discussed, or may discuss in the future, may actually be filters that contribute to the Habit Formation Personality Spectrum Ensemble discussed in this chapter. Examples of such filters are:

• The Providence Relationship Personality Spectrum Filter - confers the ability to recognize the relationship that All That Is, including oneself, has with Providence (All That Is) as It unfolds.
• The Attachment Formation Personality Spectrum Ensemble - When it is dialed up sufficiently, our instinct or urge is to "maintain associations", to be "consistent", to minimize unexpected, uncomfortable or disappointing change.
• The Compatibility-Seeking Personality Spectrum Filter - When dialed up sufficiently, our instinct or urge is to "fit in", to be "agreeable", to lessen conflict or discomfort.
• The Bullshit Detection Filter - enables the perception of whether or not sufficient validation of a representation has occurred such that dialogue in search of the most accurate interpretation of what is being discussed can actually occur.
• Pattern Recognition Personality Filter - actively seeks to recognize patterns and discriminate between appropriate actions or conclusions as a result of habituated, repeated experience.
• The Faith (Requirement to Believe) Personality Filter - strong tendency to believe without additional rational confirmation. Paradigm challenge is not welcome.
• The Imaginative (or Creative) Personality Filter - enables the ability to craft novel explanations or proposals from learned material that is different from the explanations commonly given and accepted.
• Embrace of Indoctrinated Preferences Filter - hardens the embrace of (or commitment to) beliefs to the point that they will NOT be reconsidered when credible information is offered that is in conflict with those beliefs. Alternate views are simply dismissed, ignored. No reconsideration is ever attempted, or even contemplated to be made.
• Others not listed.

→ The Section above was last updated 11 Dec 2016 19:45 PST ←

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