Inheriting Fear: Mice Haunted by Parent’s Fears

baby miceImagine that you are sitting in your room when you smell cherries and you are suddenly, inexplicably afraid. Although odors can elicit strong emotional responses, you have no bad memories of cherries. What you don’t know is that your father did, and you have inherited his fear. Sound far fetched? Maybe not. A paper published in Nature Neuroscience found just such an inherited association in mice (1). Continue reading “Inheriting Fear: Mice Haunted by Parent’s Fears”