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Anxiety About Certain Things Can Be Hereditary

Vasilisa

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Anxiety About Certain Things Can Be Hereditary
Through epigenetics, our parents' lives could influence our memories.
by Dana Smith
17 Dec 2013
The Atlantic

Excerpt:
We all know our parents have a big impact on our lives, but new evidence is emerging that our parents’ behaviors before we are born may have a bigger influence on us than we previously imagined.

Epigenetic research is a hot-button topic at the moment, generating a lot of attention in both scientific studies and the media. Epigenetics is the ability of genes to be influenced by our experiences, altering our genetic make-up in real time. By changing the chemical signals that course through your brain and body, you can actually turn genes on or off, a process that can then influence your future actions. Thus, in some ways, epigenetics can be thought of as the bridge between nature and nurture—your behavior and environment affecting your biology, and vice versa.

For example, smoking cigarettes when you’re young can prime your brain to find other addictive substances, like cocaine, more rewarding later on. This happens by increasing the expression of a certain gene that is involved in the brain’s reward system. This change can then heighten your responses to other drugs and increase your future risk for addiction.

Now it appears that these epigenetic changes not only affect our own behaviors, but that they can also be passed down to future generations.

This phenomenon—“transgenerational epigenetic inheritance”—was demonstrated recently in a study published in Nature Neuroscience about the inheritance of certain smell memories in mice, which were passed down through at least two generations.

In the study, mice were trained to be afraid of acetophenone, a fruity smell that’s used in cherry, jasmine, honey-suckle and almond flavorings. The researchers paired this fragrance with a foot shock so that it soon became a warning signal to the mice, instilling fear and alerting them to an impending attack. The mice’s noses and brains also adapted accordingly, generating additional M71 neurons—cells receptive to this particular scent—so that they would be extra sensitive to the smell. So far, this is all basic Pavlovian conditioning and neural adaptation, nothing special yet.

However, the crazy part is that the offspring of these mice, who had never before been exposed to that smell, also showed increased fear and startle responses to the scent. This suggests that the learned association, connecting the smell with danger, was passed down from one generation to the next. And this second group’s offspring also showed heightened sensitivity to the odor. Thus, three generations of mice were affected by the conditioning, even though only one of them had actually experienced it. Behind these behavioral effects were similar changes in the noses of each of these offspring groups, with larger M71 receptors present and an increase in the number of M71 neurons available.

Importantly, these results did not stem from any socially learned behaviors picked up by hanging around the anxious parent. The mice showed no reaction to other smells and had no fear responses to sounds or different types of warnings. To confirm this, the scientists even took sperm from the first set of mice, used IVF to implant them in females from another lab, raised them in isolation away from any untoward influences, and still found an increased sensitivity to the original scent.

But how exactly does this happen?

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R

Riva

Guest
This theory I first came across when I was watching Star Trek Enterprise where the Doctor suggested that humans too probably have the ability to pass down hereditary behaviours through genes. So plus one again for Star Trek: the greatest show on earth.

I see only little hereditary behaviours passed down from my parents. But then again traits I have which I think are common sense or common understandings could have a genetic influence to it.
 
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