The double helix at school: Behavioral genetics, disability, and precision education

Sabatello, Maya; Insel, Beverly J.; Corbeil, Thomas; Link, Bruce G.; Appelbaum, Paul S.

doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2021.113924

Cited by 10 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 63 publications

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“…Individual tailoring is increasingly becoming the focus of consumer products and experiences; a large marketing organisation recently declared ‘personalisation’ as the word of the year ( ANA, 2019 ). This may be especially true for genetics-based tailoring, likely due to the growing accessibility of testing and the general hype around genetics ( Sabatello et al, 2021 ). Various companies now sell personalised diets based on nutrigenomics or personalised exercise plans based on sportomics; others promise personalised learning approaches based on behavioural genetics, to name a few.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Presenting a sham treatment as personalised increases the placebo effect in a randomised controlled trial

Sandra

Olson

Langer

et al. 2023

eLife

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Background:Tailoring interventions to patient subgroups can improve intervention outcomes for various conditions. However, it is unclear how much of this improvement is due to the pharmacological personalisation versus the non-specific effects of the contextual factors involved in the tailoring process, such as the therapeutic interaction. Here, we tested whether presenting a (placebo) analgesia machine as personalised would improve its effectiveness.Methods:We recruited 102 adults in two samples (N1=17, N2=85) to receive painful heat stimulations on their forearm. During half of the stimulations, a machine purportedly delivered an electric current to reduce their pain. The participants were either told that the machine was personalised to their genetics and physiology, or that it was effective in reducing pain generally.Results:Participants told that the machine was personalised reported more relief in pain intensity than the control group in both the feasibility study (standardised β=−0.50 [–1.08, 0.08]) and the pre-registered double-blind confirmatory study (β=−0.20 [–0.36, –0.04]). We found similar effects on pain unpleasantness, and several personality traits moderated the results.Conclusions:We present some of the first evidence that framing a sham treatment as personalised increases its effectiveness. Our findings could potentially improve the methodology of precision medicine research and inform practice.Funding:This study was funded by the Social Science and Humanities Research Council (93188) and Genome Québec (95747).

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Presenting a sham treatment as personalised increases the placebo effect in a randomised controlled trial

Sandra

Olson

Langer

et al. 2023

eLife

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“…The lithophane data format (LDF) is by no means limited to pictures in science. Lithophanes can be used in the inclusive design (36) of imagery throughout the fine arts, economics, humanities, business, government, health sciences, and law (37)(38)(39)(40)(41)(42)(43)(44)(45).…”

Section: Data For Allmentioning

confidence: 99%

Data for all: Tactile graphics that light up with picture-perfect resolution

et al. 2022

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People who are blind do not have access to graphical data and imagery produced by science. This exclusion complicates learning and data sharing between sighted and blind persons. Because blind people use tactile senses to visualize data (and sighted people use eyesight), a single data format that can be easily visualized by both is needed. Here, we report that graphical data can be three-dimensionally printed into tactile graphics that glow with video-like resolution via the lithophane effect. Lithophane forms of gel electropherograms, micrographs, electronic and mass spectra, and textbook illustrations could be interpreted by touch or eyesight at ≥79% accuracy ( n = 360). The lithophane data format enables universal visualization of data by people regardless of their level of eyesight.

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“…Individual tailoring is increasingly becoming the focus of consumer products and experiences; a large marketing organisation recently declared "personalisation" as the word of the year 43 . This may be especially true for genetics-based tailoring, likely due to the growing accessibility of testing and the general hype around genetics 51 . Various companies now sell personalised diets based on nutrigenomics or personalised exercise plans based on sportomics; others promise personalised learning approaches based on behavioural genetics, to name a few.…”

Section: Ideas and Speculationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Presenting a Sham Treatment as Personalised Increases the Placebo Effect in a Randomised Controlled Trial

Sandra¹,

Olson²,

Langer³

et al. 2022

Preprint

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Tailoring interventions to patient subgroups can improve treatment outcomes for various conditions. However, it is yet unclear how much of this improvement is due to the pharmacological personalisation itself versus the related contextual factors involved in the tailoring process, such as the therapeutic interaction. Here, we tested whether presenting a placebo analgesia machine as personalised would improve its effectiveness. We recruited 102 adults in two samples (N1 = 17, N2 = 85) to receive painful heat stimulations on their forearm. During half of the stimulations, a placebo machine purportedly delivered an electric current to reduce their pain. The participants were either told that the machine was personalised to their genetics and physiology, or that it was effective in reducing pain generally. Participants receiving the sham personalisation reported more relief in pain intensity than the control group in both the feasibility study (standardised b = -0.50 [-1.08, 0.08]) and the pre-registered double-blind confirmatory study (b = -0.20, [-0.36, -0.04]). We found similar effects on pain unpleasantness; several personality traits moderated the results. We present some of the first evidence that precision treatments may benefit from the contextual factors associated with the personalisation process. Isolating these factors could help improve control in clinical trials or potentially boost treatment effects in clinical settings.

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The double helix at school: Behavioral genetics, disability, and precision education

Cited by 10 publications

References 63 publications

Presenting a sham treatment as personalised increases the placebo effect in a randomised controlled trial

Presenting a sham treatment as personalised increases the placebo effect in a randomised controlled trial

Data for all: Tactile graphics that light up with picture-perfect resolution

Presenting a Sham Treatment as Personalised Increases the Placebo Effect in a Randomised Controlled Trial

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