Blog Entry 5 - Chapter 4

Chapter 4

What does it mean to say that some trait is highly heritable? If you want to improve your flute playing and someone tells you that musical ability is heritable, should you stop practicing?

Heritability is basically the part of an individual in a group that varies due to their genes, for example height, personality, and intelligence are all heritable. Although we inherit many things from our parents there are many population and environmental influences that can differ heritability between people. To say that personality traits are 40 percent heritable does not suggest that 40 percent of your personality comes from your parents and 60 percent comes from environmental factors. Heritability suggests that 40 percent of the observed differences among people are influenced by genes. To make matters even more clear heritability is how much of a difference there are in people based on their genetics.

To say something is highly heritable suggests that it is more likely that the trait is effected by genetics. An example of a highly heritable trait would be height. Further explaining that height is primarily based on the genes you get from your parents rather than environmental factors such as nutrition. Regardless of how you eat or how healthy you eat you will more likely reach a certain point where you cannot grow any taller due to genetics. If your entire family's height average is 5'5" it is very unlikely that you will grow to be over 6' if no one in your family has such a height. Although nutrition and other environmental factors can have an effect on height there is limitations due to one's genes they have inherited. 

If you are wanting to improve flute playing you shouldn't stop playing because someone tells you that musical ability is heritable. As stated above environmental factors play a roll in traits and some more than others. With musical ability it is easy for environmental factors to take over rather than heritability. An individual that comes from a family with no known musical background can become just as good as one that does come from a family with an extensive musical background. By surrounding themselves with music constantly, by practicing daily, by learning and creating a discipline for music the individual that comes from a non-musical background can become an amazing composer. Plasticity also plays a roll by building new pathways in the brain through experience rather than it being inherited directly through genes. Some traits are more highly effected by environmental factors rather than heritability and along with musical ability, sleep and religious beliefs all can be considered of low heredity.