3 Unwanted Inheritance from your Parents
3 Unwanted Inheritance from your Parents
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| 3 Unwanted Inheritance from your Parents |
Inheritance. Isn’t it nice to receive something you
haven’t work hard for. But I’m not going to talk about money and properties.
I’m going to talk about those things you won’t like to receive.
1. FEAR
We’re familiar on the concept that a gene is passed from
one generation to another. That’s how you look like your parents, but how about
a specific behavior, like a fear of a particular object? Is fear inherited?
New research are beginning to unravel that the blow of a traumatic
experience goes beyond the lifetime and is in fact inherited through
generations. A study by B Dias and K Ressler involving mice shows that fear
can be inherited by at least 2 generations.
In their study, they trained a poor little mice to fear
the smell of acetophenone (like the smell of cherries) by giving the little
creature electric shock in the presence of this supposedly pleasant smell.
Horrified with this experience, the little mice panics every time it smells
acetophenone even when it’s not electrocuted.
Astoundingly, the offspring of this mice goes haywire at
the smell of acetophenone even when it has not experienced the electrocution
it’s parent has undergone.
Come to think about it, certain behavior are seen as norm
even to those untrained to do so. Like dogs going nuts at the sound or sight of
a cat. Do you think their behavior just appeared out of nowhere?
2. ANXIETY
DISORDER
Anxiety—that feeling of nervousness and panic you feel every time
you encounter an unfamiliar or tense situation like speaking in public. That’s
normal.
But when your anxiety becomes so intense that it
interferes with your daily life...that’s not normal. Anxiety disorder is the
most common mental disorder in the United States.
If your parents have anxiety disorder, your chance of
having or developing it increases. Certain brain metabolism and structure can
be inherited predisposing an individual to be anxious.
3 crucial brain structure has been identified – prefrontal cortex (responsible for decision making and judgement), amygdala , and limbic system (involves in emotion, memory, and arousal.)
3 crucial brain structure has been identified – prefrontal cortex (responsible for decision making and judgement), amygdala , and limbic system (involves in emotion, memory, and arousal.)
Let’s just say that if your parents have anxiety
disorder, you chance of having it is about 50%. Ob course environmental factor
and life experiences also plays a crucial role.
3. PSYCHOPATH
A psychopath is a person who lacks empathy, compassion, conscience
and guilt. Combine those traits with fearlessness, a tendency towards violence,
and no regard to the feeling and rights of other people, you have yourself a criminal.
Is someone destined to be a criminal? Does this mean that a criminal
is not entirely liable for his/her crime? That there’s an uncontrollable factor
at play like genes?
MAOA gene (also
known as the “warrior gene”) has been linked to violent tendencies. People with
the variant MAO-L gene have been
found to have a smaller limbic system, the part of the brain responsible for
emotion, memory, and arousal.
Modern imaging of the brain has revealed that psychopaths
have less brain activity in the prefrontal cortex, the seat of higher mental
processes like decision making and judgement. So basically, psychopath’s brain
isn’t wired to think better of.
There you have it, more reasons to blame something you
can’t control, but that doesn’t mean you’re not responsible for your own action.
Because after all, it’s not just your gene at play.
Now, it doesn't mean that if you have the MAOA “warrior gene”, you automatically
become a criminal. That’s not how it works. Because then again, although your
gene may influence you, it doesn't alone control your future. There are many
factors at play like upbringing, life experiences, and environmental factors.
References:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24292232
http://www.nature.com/neuro/journal/v17/n1/full/nn.3594.html
http://www.pnas.org/content/112/29/9118.full
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25225016
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2933872/
