Phobia's could be genetic!

Phobia's may occur due to our genes! 

Scared of spiders? Blame your great grandmother! Recent studies run by scientists at the Emory University School of Medicine have found evidence to the hypothesis that memories can be passed down to later generations due to genetic switches. This then allows the children to inherit these phobias which may trigger later on in their lives. 

Researches find that phobia's could be inherited from our family ancestors

New research has found that phobia's could be biologically passed down through generations. This is a cause of chemical changes that occur in one's DNA which is then later passed onto the offspring. Researchers have found that mice can pass on learned information on traumas or stressful experiences. Although these results can be linked to human behaviour we cannot 100% generalise these results to humans, however it does provide a base of a future hypothesis for scientist's to further discover. 

Thus according to these results a fear of spiders could in fact be an inherited defense mechanism used by previous generations. Dr Brian Dis says "We have begun to explore an under-appreciated influence on adult behaviour ancestral experience before conception. From a transnational perspective, our results allow us to appreciate how the experiences of a parent, before even conceiving offspring, markedly influence both structure and function in the nervous system of subsequent generations".

In the study conducted, researchers trained mice to to be afraid of cherry blossom by giving them electric shocks when exposed to the smell. The mice then associate the shock's to the small (classical conditioning). This causes the research to have serious ethical issues. In my opinion it is vile to treat animals this way for the purpose of scientific research. Anyhow, they found that the mice's offspring were also afraid on the cherry blossom compared to other odors. The following generation also had similar reactions. When analysing the structure within the mice's brains, the researchers found changes within the areas which detected the odor. This gives evidence to the hypothesis: experiences can somehow be transferred from the brain to the genome, causing them to be passed on to later generations.