A century after the first twin and adoption studies of behavior in the 1920s, this review looks back on the journey and celebrates milestones in behavioral genetic research. After a whistle-stop tour of early quantitative genetic research and the parallel journey of molecular genetics, the travelogue focuses on the last fifty years. Just as quantitative genetic discoveries were beginning to slow down in the 1990s, molecular genetics made it possible to assess DNA variation directly. From a rocky start with candidate gene association research, by 2005 the technological advance of DNA microarrays enabled genome-wide association studies, which have successfully identified some of the DNA variants that contribute to the ubiquitous heritability of behavioral traits. The ability to aggregate the effects of thousands of DNA variants in polygenic scores has created a DNA revolution in the behavioral sciences by making it possible to use DNA to predict individual differences in behavior from early in life.

20 世纪 20 年代首个双胞胎和领养行为研究发生一个世纪后，这篇综述回顾了这一历程，庆祝行为遗传学研究的里程碑。在对早期定量遗传学研究和分子遗传学的并行之旅进行了短暂的游览之后，游记重点关注了过去的五十年。正如定量遗传学发现在 20 世纪 90 年代开始放缓一样，分子遗传学使直接评估 DNA 变异成为可能。从候选基因关联研究的起步并不顺利，到 2005 年，DNA 微阵列的技术进步使得全基因组关联研究成为可能，该研究成功地鉴定了一些导致行为特征普遍遗传的 DNA 变异。在多基因评分中汇总数千种 DNA 变异的影响的能力，使利用 DNA 预测生命早期个体行为差异成为可能，在行为科学领域掀起了一场 DNA 革命。