The rise of behavioral genetics and the transition to behavioral genomics and beyond

Behavioral genetics, also commonly referred to as behavior genetics, can be broadly defined as the study of the inheritance of behavioral phenotypes (Crusio, 2015). Although it is a surprisingly old discipline going back to the 19th century, behavioral genetics is one of the most rapidly expanding areas of contemporary biology. In particular, the breathtaking speed of methodological development in the analysis of genes and genomes has transformed the understanding of the genetic basis of behavior and is paving the way for the emerging field of comparative behavioral genomics. Consequently, the limiting factor in the future of behavioral genetics might not be the gathering of genetic, genomic, or epigenetic data but rather gaining a deeper understanding of the behavioral variation explained by genes, the environment, and their interaction. In this chapter, our goal is to provide a concise introduction to the vast and wide-ranging research field of behavioral genetics and to describe its history and early controversies, conceptual and methodological advances, and outlook for the future. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved)