Scientists say 'ouch gene' separates boys from men

MUMBAI: Beneath Clark Kent''s wimpish shirt beats Superman''s surging heart. When the lights go off and guns come out, bullnecked Bruce Wayne becomes cape-swirling Batman.
The world of comics is full of these and other examples of wimps who are winners in disguise. In real life, however, the differences between the geekish softie and the testosterone toughie run deeper: A 90-pound weakling does occasionally morph into a 300-pound gorilla, but that happens mostly in Charles Atlas ads.For here, too, genetic limitations can be crucial.
Does that mean the genetic Computerji locks and seals our life options like the the KBC one does? Not really. For as Daniel Dennett, noted anti-determinist and director of Tufts University''s cognitive studies centre, says, Knowledge of the roles of our genes, and the genes of the other species around us, is not the enemy of freedom, but one of its best friends."
Dr Dennett says he hasn''t encountered anybody who claims that will, education, and culture cannot change many, if not all, of our genetically inherited traits".
With that caveat in mind, get ready to greet the new research on the socalled ouch gene: scientists led by Dr Jon-Kar Zubieta of the University of Michigan say that if you find yourself whining over a minor paper cut or moaning over a stubbed toe, you can blame your genes.
Their research, carried in the latest issue of ''Science'', says the difference between a wimp and a tough guy (or girl) may be due in part to a tiny variation of a single gene.
In another study, scientists have identified how neurons form "memories" of pains past. This could help to explain why some people continue experience chronic pain long after the injury or inflammation that sparked the pain has subsided. Both findings add to a growing body of research that links differences in genes and brain chemistry with individual perception of pain.
Indeed, one does not have to be a clinician to know that while some Bloomsbury aesthete types experience pain chronically and forever, there are those hardy Spartan souls who get over the same kind of pain quickly and without much fuss. What the current research does is reveal underlying genetic differences that may explain why some people, given the same experience, never get rid of the pain or experience it longer while some barely experience it at all.
Earlier, for example, researchers led by Dr George R. Uhl of the Johns Hopkins University reported that individual differences in pain perception might be due to a variation on receptors the surface of nerve cells. Their studies of humans and mice had shown that the number of receptors had direct influence on an individual''s sensitivity to pain. This was found to be due to variations in a single entity, appropriately called the ''ouch gene'' or the muopiate receptor gene.
In the present study on "pain memories," researchers from Germany and Austria knew from previous research that when a certain group of neurons in the spinal cord are stimulated by the notorious Substance P, abnormally enhanced sensitivity to pain can result. They found that the activation of a key set of receptors led to this strengthening of connections among the neurons.
The result was a permanent enhancement of the pain-processing pathways in the individual who became a Proustian Pasha of Pain— someone sensitive to the most minor twinge of pain long after it has passed.
In the second study, which focused on the genetic differences of pain perception, researchers injected 15 men and 14 women ages 20 to 30 with salt water. The injection simulated the pain someone would feel if he had a chronic condition called temporomandibular joint pain disorder.
During the experiment, the study participants were asked to rate their pain every 15 seconds while researchers monitored their brain activity using positron-emission tomography, or PET scans. The participants were also asked to fill out a detailed questionnaire about their perception of pain and their level of emotional distress after the study.
Here too, researchers found subjects who had a single variation on the COMT (catechol-O-methyltransferase) gene experienced more severe pain and were more troubled by the experience.
The scientists focused on the COMT gene because it contains enzymes that control the metabolism of crucial nerve chemicals dopamine and noradrenaline that mediate in the perception of pleasure and pain.
With these discoveries, the scientists now hope to move on to identifying other pathways that impact or pain perception and emotions.