In some respects this has been obvious for a long
time but rarely noted. Part of our
genetic memory is a natural almost hardwired dislike for snakes. I suspect that the same holds true for key
carnivores. After all, these will
trigger out lower tier brain into instant action with our fore brain finding
itself merely along for the ride.
A prospector friend of mine found himself thirty
feet up a tree an instant after confronting a grizzly. I personally found myself thirty feet away in
fine running form upon confronting a sake at a distance of a foot from my face. Yes we all knew how to handle the situation,
yet our instinctual brain skedaddled.
What I am not seeing here is anything beyond actual
memory, and nothing more complex seems to have come through. Nuance is not part of the process but
generational retention of key fractals of danger is obviously possible.
Scientists have found that memories may be
passed down through generations in our DNA
New research from
Emory University School of Medicine, in Atlanta, has shown that it is
possible for some information to be inherited biologically through chemical
changes that occur in DNA. During the tests they learned
that that mice can pass on learned information about traumatic or
stressful experiences – in this case a fear of the smell of cherry blossom – to
subsequent generations.
According to the Telegraph, Dr Brian Dias, from the department of
psychiatry at Emory University, said: ”From a translational 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.
“Such a phenomenon may contribute to the
etiology and potential intergenerational transmission of risk for
neuropsychiatric disorders such as phobias, anxiety and post-traumatic stress
disorder.”
This suggests that experiences are somehow
transferred from the brain into the genome, allowing them to be passed on to
later generations.
The researchers now hope to carry out further
work to understand how the information comes to be stored on the DNA in the
first place.
They also want to explore whether similar
effects can be seen in the genes of humans.
Professor Marcus Pembrey, a paediatric
geneticist at University College London, said the work provided “compelling evidence” for the biological
transmission of memory.
He added: “It addresses constitutional
fearfulness that is highly relevant to phobias, anxiety and post-traumatic
stress disorders, plus the controversial subject of transmission of the
‘memory’ of ancestral experience down the generations.
“It is high time public health researchers
took human transgenerational responses seriously.
“I suspect we will not understand the rise in
neuropsychiatric disorders or obesity, diabetes and metabolic disruptions
generally without taking a multigenerational approach.”
Professor Wolf Reik, head of epigenetics at
the Babraham Institute in Cambridge, said, however, further work was needed
before such results could be applied to humans.
He said: “These types of results are
encouraging as they suggest that transgenerational inheritance exists and is
mediated by epigenetics, but more careful mechanistic study of animal models is
needed before extrapolating such findings to humans.”
May our DNA Carrying also spiritual and
cosmic memories passed down in genes from our ancestors ?
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