Blogpost 8: Fear Can Be Inherited

Do you have the same fear like your father? Like your father is scared of a flying cockroach and he don't want to be alone? Did you ask your father if he has the same fear like you? Because the fears of your father might be transferred to you from the beginning. Along with your physical appearance that you get in your parents, fear can also be transmitted too. Let me give you an explanation about this.

I've read an article entitled The smell of fear can be inherited, scientists prove by Steve Connor from the website www.independent.co.uk.

Scientist have already proven that fear can be pass on by a father to his child through sperm. Mice has been experimented that they can be trained to connect a smell to a frightened memory and this can be transfer through generations by a changes of chemical to the sperm of the father. This has build a question whether it would be the same to us humans. Example of this is if you have experience something that is psychologically traumatic, you can pass this kind of where you are involved in their sperm to the child. Researchers highlighted or give importance to this because they know that there's a possibility that something might be the same in people. The discoveries have add some support to a theory known as  "inheritance of acquired characteristics" spread by Jean Baptise Lamarck in the 18th century. Lamarck suggested that a creature can transfer physical attribute they developed throughout their existence to their child or offspring.  This idea was replaced by the theory of natural selection of Charles Darwin which was assisted by the genes when it was discovered and the inheritance of Mendelian. The current study, however, prove that the theory of Lamarck may exist in the nature because of the result in the influences of environment that affects directly to the changes of an organism's DNA. The same as the studies in female mice, showed that the same procedure can also happen in the egg cells but it is more hard to understand the possibilities.

Connor said to his article that "The biggest interpretation of the research, if it holds up across mammals, is that it may be possible for certain traits such as the fearful experience of a parent to be transmitted to subsequent generations." This means that it would be possible for our parents to transfer their fears in life through the next generations. This is possible because most of our parents have the same fear like us. 

The second article I've read entitled Fear can be inherited by Laura Sanders from the website www.sciencenews.org.

She said that the color of our eyes or dimples can be passed by our parents. Maybe we have the same color like our mother or father. The experiment through the mice, turn out to be that a traumatic experience from our life can be passed to the next generation. The parents of the mouse have a shock in smelling the scent of a flower, but why is it that their children have a sign of fear like this too even though they have never smelled it? Studies said that sperm alone can transfer a fear of message to someone.

Sanders said to her article that "Ancestral experience could be an underappreciated influence on animals and people's brains and behaviors". This means that our ancestors can have influenced by the behavior in our society.

It would be better if there are more researchers to studies this topic. But if I learn that my fears are also same with my parents, It would be a good discovery for myself because I can ask my parents on how to overcome this.