Gadget-Freak Gene Identified

[Mulboyne]

Media Life: The disorder of these times, neophilia
It sounds like a terrible disease, and dirty too: neophilia. It is neither, actually, but an affliction nonetheless, and one especially common to the bright and overeducated...Neophiliacs are people who love everything new or novel. While most people have some element of this trait in their personality, there are some folks who have an almost unstoppable draw to every whizzy new electronic gizmo...It turns out some people may, in fact, be more genetically predisposed than others to wanting the newest toys, gadgets and fashions...it seems that genetic differences mean that people produce different variations of a mitochondrial enzyme called monoamine oxidase A. That’s according to research from the Yamagata University School of Medicine in Japan...more...

[Iraira]

Low level expression of Monoamine Oxidase A (MAO A) is linked to bipolar depression and violent behavior. Idea: put all the fashion freaks in a room with the low level MAO A lunatics and see who wins. Not a scientific experiment, so betting would be encouraged.

bipolar.about.com/od/maois?terms=monoamine+oxidase+inhibitor

http://www.science.siu.edu/microbiology/micr302/MAO.html