The next time you hear people arguing about nature versus nurture in the area of neuroscience, tell them to cut it out. Nature versus nurture is no longer a meaningful debate, according to Mriganka Sur, wriging in the Dec 12, 2008 edition of Science (available online only to subscribers):
Among developmental neuroscientists the debate between nature and nurture has become outmoded. We now know that there is no such thing as a gene that acts in isolation and that every gene needs an environment — whether the environment is the presence of molecules made by other genes, signals generated internally within the developing nervous system, or electrical activity transduced from the external world. Thus, the discussion within the field has moved from nature versus nurture to the integration of nature and nurture and even beyond, to the nature of nurture — which kinds of environmental influences can affect gene expression at specific time points of development.
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