Can you inherit fear?

Have you ever met someone who feared buttons? Yes, buttons, those very useful trinkets that hold parts of our clothes (and modesty) in place. I have, many years ago. No one, including the one who held that fear, could explain why. None of them remember her having had a devastating encounter with a monster button. I must admit that when I first heard of her and her fear, I spent some time trying to imagine ways that a button could traumatize someone.

If you feared buttons or “bigger” things like social interaction, water, heights, open spaces, dark spaces, or any other fear but cannot remember having had any experience that could have caused that, there may be an explanation you could maybe one day, tell your friends: you inherited it from your parents.

The basis for that “excuse” is an experiment that was done with mice and the scientists involved say that more research needs to be undertaken to see if this also applies to humans. But we do share a similar brain structure with mice that is why mice have been the subject of choice when it comes to brain experiments so this a good place to start looking.

There have been a few studies that have been investigating the role of biology in memory and in a study recently published in the journal Nature Neuroscience, they were able to make mice inherit the fear of their parent. They did this by making mice smell cherry blossoms and giving them electrical shocks. This “coded” the association of the two so that the mice was made to fear cherry blossoms. Then comes the shocking part.  These same mice later conceived and gave birth to offspring who were also afraid of the scent of cherry blossoms.

I think that is such a neat way for nature to make sure that the next generation gets the information that could serve them well. What nature does not know of course if how much the life of the next generation could have changed that it will not benefit them to instinctively act on an inherent fear. Worse, it could even endanger the life or well-being of the offspring.

The scientists think that the traumatizing event changed the DNA of the parent through chemical imprinting induced by the experience. Through triggers that turn genes on and off, the particular phobia is inherited. . There is increasing evidence that what your grandma or parents were exposed to including food, may have found their way to you, because it got chemically imprinted in their DNA. But again, with fear, it remains to be seen if humans can also inherit specific phobias.

What we know now in the evolutionary sense is that we all inherit a wiring from our ancestors, passed on from generation to generation, that make us fear. This is because fear is one of those “necessary” measures that nature invented so that we will not risk everything and die. It lies deep in the brain part that other animals, even reptiles have. Those who did not heed their fears at all, died and those who were able to calibrate their fears, lived on. We are the descendants of those who were able to calibrate their fears enough to negotiate the turns of their lives. We fear but we live with it. And fear is always there, that is why there is always the chance, whether through genes or experience, that it could be directed at a particular thing and get out of hand.

The good news though is that in the same way that experiments with mice have shown that fear can be embedded in the brain, it could also be “re-branded”. I wrote about the study on this last month. I hope they find a way to see how this can help those debilitated by crushing memories of tragic events.

As if the burden of one’s own life experiences is not enough, there seems to be a possibility that phobias can be passed on. If so, we may have to be even careful with what we fear lest we perpetuate it down the line. Tears and fears. 

What are you afraid of? – Rappler.com

Maria Isabel Garcia is a science writer. She has written two books, Science Solitaire and Twenty One Grams of Spirit and Seven Ounces of Desire. Her column appears every Friday and you can reach her at sciencesolitaire@gmail.com.

(“Father and son watching scary movie on a laptop” image courtesy of ShutterStock)