Certain fears can be inherited through the generations, a provocative study of mice reports1. The authors suggest that a similar phenomenon could influence anxiety and addiction in humans. But some researchers are sceptical of the findings because a biological mechanism that explains the phenomenon has not been identified.


According to convention, the genetic sequences contained in DNA are the only way to transmit biological information across generations. Random DNA mutations, when beneficial, enable organisms to adapt to changing conditions, but this process typically occurs slowly over many generations.

Yet some studies have hinted that environmental factors can influence biology more rapidly through 'epigenetic' modifications, which alter the expression of genes, but not their actual nucleotide sequence. For instance, children who were conceived during a harsh wartime famine in the Netherlands in the 1940s are at increased risk of diabetes, heart disease and other conditions — possibly because of epigenetic alterations to genes involved in these diseases2. Yet although epigenetic modifications are known to be important for processes such as development and the inactivation of one copy of the X-chromsome in females, their role in the inheritance of behaviour is still controversial.

Kerry Ressler, a neurobiologist and psychiatrist at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, and a co-author of the latest study, became interested in epigenetic inheritance after working with poor people living in inner cities, where cycles of drug addiction, neuropsychiatric illness and other problems often seem to recur in parents and their children. “There are a lot of anecdotes to suggest that there’s intergenerational transfer of risk, and that it’s hard to break that cycle,” he says.

Heritable traits
Studying the biological basis for those effects in humans would be difficult. So Ressler and his colleague Brian Dias opted to study epigenetic inheritance in laboratory mice trained to fear the smell of acetophenone, a chemical the scent of which has been compared to those of cherries and almonds. He and Dias wafted the scent around a small chamber, while giving small electric shocks to male mice. The animals eventually learned to associate the scent with pain, shuddering in the presence of acetophenone even without a shock.

http://www.nature.com/news/fearful-memo ... ts-1.14272

I agree with the mice experiments, lack of cheese makes me extremely stressed.

A slice of brie or Danish blue and a glass of red wine normally calms me down.

vladimir wrote:I agree with the mice experiments, lack of cheese makes me extremely stressed.

A slice of brie or Danish blue and a glass of red wine normally calms me down.

We're still enjoying 2kg blocks of 'family cheese' from NZ available at ridiculously reasonable prices from our local minimart. A white Castello and grapes would be lovely, though.

Bastard.Bastard.Bastard.

Hey, can you ask your buddy to do the 5 loaves thing with the cheese? I'm running low over here...and if you can get the recipe for the water into wine, I'll come to church*.

* terms and conditions apply

vladimir wrote:I'll come to church*.

* terms and conditions apply **

** wouldn't actually come

Username Taken wrote:Which mini-mart? One and One?

Yeah, bottom shelf middle fridge.

Wait... thinking... no. NO. Definitely NOT One and One, its some other place!

What's the cheapest 500 gm or 1 KG block?

*** is holographic attendance permissible?

Back on subject... I agree with the findings and I think that may be the reason that some of the bargirls [ and others ] go through those mental crazy breakdowns. I personally have known one , a very nice intelligent girl , that when put under a bit of stress that she could not handle, just went crazy. Probably why the word '' crazy '' is so often used in Cambodia.
Looking back to the pol pot years she would have been between the age of 5 and 7 , looking after her two younger brother and sister while her mother carried dirt on the irrigation cannels. I often wondered what she had locked up in the back of her mind, that was screaming to get out, but she would not let it. Probably something's she saw, the smell of fear or death and never knowing if the mother was coming home to give them a meal.
Too often we are willing to accept ,results from war experiences, shell shock , battle fatigue, and all the new names the give it, but no-one is willing to say that kids in war torn areas undergo the same , if not worse experience because of their early brain and memory development.

vladimir wrote:What's the cheapest 500 gm or 1 KG block?

*** is holographic attendance permissible?

Easily the 2kg block...

**** offerings taken by Paypal