It turns out that an acquired "fear experience" actually inherits to descendants

ByMaestro Pastelero

Having received a strong physical and mental shock, it will be a bruise to my heart for a long timePsychological trauma (trauma),PTSDIt is known to cause symptoms such as symptoms. Although trauma feels like what arises from an acquired experience, it became clear that there is a possibility that parents inherit it inherited in the form of genetic inheritance.

Intergenerational transmission of emotional trauma through amygdala-dependent mother-to-infant transfer of specific fear
http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2014/07/23/1316740111

Fears can be inherited through smell | The Verge
http://www.theverge.com/2014/7/28/5944797/fears-can-be-inherited-through-smell

Dr. Jamesk Daviech of the University of Michigan unveiled at the National Academy of Sciences "Using Mouse to Inherit Fear and Trauma in Child Generation" at the National Academy of Sciences.

Dr. DeVijet repeatedly gives a light electric shock to the female mouse, and by combining the scent of peppermint with the fear experience of electric shock and the condition of fragrance of peppermint, only smell the fragrance of peppermint In order to cause fear reactions such as dragonfly inFear conditioningWe did.

Then, let the female mouse, which became afraid of the scent of peppermint, be missed with the scent of peppermint with the male mouse not conditioned by fear, and with the mother mouse with the child born with her, the scent of peppermint When it sniffed, not only mother mouse but also child mouse showed fear reaction.

ByEddy Van 3000

Furthermore, children 's mice were born in a far less immature state than human babies, and their eyes are blind and ears are not heard, so it is unlikely that they will be able to teach fear experiences after birth. However, it is impossible to say that the possibility that a mother mouse who showed a fear response to the fragrance of peppermint, in some way transmitted "fear" to a child mouse at that time is zero.

Therefore, in order to completely eliminate the possibility that the fear experience was transferred afterwards, when the baby mouse was completely separated from the mother mouse and smelled the fragrance of peppermint, even when the mother mouse did not exist It turned out that child mouse showed a fear response.

Furthermore, when we performed an experiment using oocytes of father conditioned mother mice and surrogate mother mice without fear conditioning, child mice, born again, showed a fear response when smell of peppermint was smelled .

ByZEISS Microscopy

As mentioned above, when it is certain that the fear experience will succeed genetically, a research team of Dr. Devieck investigates the brain of the mouse. Then, it is a stress hormoneCorticosteroneIt has been confirmed that the amygdala is activated.

Dr. DeVijet said, "To genetically inherit information on fear experiences to the child generation is an ecologically important mechanism in that it can acquire information on the dangers of the outside world by nature" However, with regard to "There is a moral problem in conducting experiments on human beings, do horrific experience succeeded genetically?", It is said that it is not realistic to investigate in the same way as mouse .