When it comes to twins, seeing double goes much deeper than just appearances. Chances are that you know a set of twins, or you have met a person who says they are a twin. Our society has an odd fascination with twins, mainly because it is both weird and cool to see two sets of one person walking around school or work.
Mainstream media has made twins seem like nearly alien-like creatures with special powers. There have been startling stories about twins such as they can feel each other’s emotions and know when the other is in trouble. While the twin phenomenon has been going on for thousands of years, many do not know all that much about twins. Doctors and scientists have been discovering fascinating breakthroughs in twin studies that make the phenomenon even more fascinating.
For example, the idea of “twin talk”, or a pair of twins developing their own language isn’t that far-fetched. Doctors have discovered that twins will start to develop their own language while learning their native language. It sometimes happens by accident, but twins will actually practice their language skills with each other, which usually sounds like inverted words and gibberish. On the rare occasion, some sets of twins will continue to develop their own language and speak it in front of their friends and family, thus making them even more fascinating.
If you have a case of conjoined twins, then these special people may actually share senses depending on where they are conjoined. Krista and Tatianna Hogan are conjoined through the thalamic bridge. When one is eating ketchup, the other twin is seen trying to get the taste out of their mouth. While one is watching television, the other one is laughing even though she can’t see the screen. Doctors have theorized that the girls share their senses even though they may be doing two totally different things at the same time.
In the state of Massachusetts, it seems that the ratio of twins is much higher than the rest of the United States with a ratio of one set of twins per ever 4.5 live births. However doctors believe that this has more to do with fertility than genetics. In the state of Massachusetts, there are more career minded people living there who wait longer to have children, who later find out that it is no longer easy to get pregnant. Fertility drugs often result in twins.
Speaking of genetics, scientists have been researching whether the existence of the “twin gene” is legitimate. While studying the different types of twins from fraternal to identical, researchers have found that fraternal twins seem to be more genetic thanks to women to hyper ovulate thanks to family history. Identical twins haven’t been linked to anything connected with genetics or family and seem to happen by chance.
Finally, researchers have been trying to legitimize the “nature vs. nurture” argument by studying a pair of twins separated at birth who were both named James. Both men married and divorced women named Linda, and remarried women named Betty. This has caused to force people to wonder whether our lives are really written out in our genetics.
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