恐怖症は遺伝から来ているのか？ [ニュース]
対人恐怖症や高所恐怖症は幼児期の体験がトラウマになって作られると考える人もいるだろう。
しかしアメリカの大学の研究によると恐怖症は遺伝によるものかもしれないというのだ。
米アトランタのエモリー大学の研究者がマウスを使った実験で、あるにおいと電気ショックを同時に与えたマウスの子供と孫について調べた。そうしたところそのマウスの子孫もそのにおいを怖がることが分かった。そうした子孫マウスには実験前にそのにおいをかがせていなかったことから、精子と卵子を通しての遺伝と考えられるという。この実験が示すのは、恐怖体験をすることでDNAに修正が加わり、恐怖がそのまま子孫に遺伝するというしくみだ。
彼らは「この研究は、不安障害や恐怖症、心的外傷後ストレス障害などの精神神経疾患の解明と改善にも役立つ可能性がある」としている。
事象の流れを見極めることで、メンタルヘルスの治療をより効果的なものにできる可能性があると期待される。
さように恐怖症で悩む人が多い現在の日本ですが、その過去のネガティブな感情に対して極めて効果的に対処できるアメリカ発の方法があることをごぞんじでしょうか？
以下のサイトに詳しいです。
以下がNatureworldnewsからの原文の引用です。
Parents pass on their traumatic experiences to their offspring via their sperm and eggs, according to an animal study that could explain why some people seem to be born with irrational phobias.
Emory University researchers paired a mild electric shock with the a smell produced by the chemical acetophenone. They did this knowing the smell is responsible for activating a specific cell cluster in the nose and a particular "odor receptor" gene in the cells.
They then bred those mice in order to create a second generation, which showed increased sensitivity to the odor despite never having been exposed to it before. Even more stunning was the discovery of the same reaction in the third generation of mice, or grandchildren of those originally dealt the shock.
Dr. Kerry Ressler, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, and Brian Dias, the first author of the paper published in Nature Neuroscience and a postdoctoral fellow, were surprised upon further analysis to find that both the second and third generation of mice had noses with more M71 neurons, which contain a receptor capable of detecting acetophenone. Their brains also boasted larger M71 glomeruli, the area of the olfactory bubble that detects the chemical's odor.
"When Brian came in with the first set of data, we both just couldn't believe it," National Geographic quoted Ressler as saying. "I was like, 'Well, it must just be random, let's do it again.' And then it just kept working. We do a lot of behavior [experiments], but being able to see structural change that correlates with behavior is really pretty astounding."
In order to rule out the possibility that the increased sensitivity was somehow passed down from parent to child through instruction, the scientists gave a group of the offspring to other mice that then cared for them.
Still, the phenomenon remained, suggesting the changes are rooted in epigenetic alterations, or shifts in genetic expression.
Going forward, the researchers hope to uncover whether these effects are reversible and if they only occur with odors, as well as whether all sperm or eggs contain epigenetic marks affecting odor sensitivity.
"We are really just scratching the surface at this point," Dias said in a statement. "Our next goal must be to buffer descendant generations from these effects, Such interventions could form the core of a treatment to prevent the development of neuropsychiatric disorders with roots in ancestral trauma."
恐怖症やうつなどのネガティブな感情に悩んでいる方は一度、アメリカ発の以下の方法をご覧になってはいかがでしょうか？
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