The Inheritance of Trauma
A recent study of Holocaust Victims and their children found the first examples of epigenetic inheritance. This is the idea that trauma and environmental factors can affect the genes of children.
Article states: “It’s not clear whether the gene changes found in the study would permanently affect the children’s health, nor do the results upend any of our theories of evolution.”
What I wonder about is whether this can be compounded in marginalized and persecuted groups over generations. What it hopefully proves is humans have remarkable abilities to cope and survive.
I’m sure defense attorneys all over are taking notice.Report
From 1948 onward, at least plurality of Israel’s population basically suffered form PTSD because they survived horrific anti-Jewish violence in Europe, the Middle East, or North Africa. The 1990s brought in millions of Jews from the former USSR or Ethiopia that suffered from anti-Jewish violence organized on the state level. This can explain a lot.Report
Is this outcome seen in the Cambodians that lived through the Kumar Rouge (sp) atrocities?
You’d expect to see it in all kinds of populations.
The Armenians?
American Africans?
The muslim slaves?
….Report
Most likely, yes.Report
I can’t remember where so please take this with a grain of salt, but I heard/read that there is evidence of animals “inheriting” certain fears from their parents. So if a lab rat got shocked every time he touched the red button, his future children would have an inborn fear or aversion to red, even though they never actually experienced the association firsthand.
It would seem to me that if this is indeed possible in animals, that it would be possible in humans. The mechanisms, extent, intensity, frequency, etc. might vary greatly but the general notion that a future generation could carry certain emotional legacies of their forefathers doesn’t seem out of the question.Report
The linked article talks about it:
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That’s it! Hey… I didn’t make it up.Report
Nature is weird.Report
Yes, it is.
http://www.rifters.com/crawl/?p=6116Report
So heavy drinking can make you smarter?Report
It seems to make people think they’re smarter….Report
Unfortunately, there’s probably a critical period for this stuff, so we’re hopeless. However, if we give toddlers enough alcohol, perhaps…Report
A couple things:
I’m not sure how controversial “epigenetic inheritance” really is. I can think of more than a few more-parsimonious alternative explanations in this particular study. Plus, epigenetic inheritance has been demonstrated in animal and unicellular models and it’s presumed that it takes place in humans, although really quite hard to separate from “environmental” factors.Report
We could solve this question by taking a few hundred children and raising one set in a control group and another subjected to various horrors and tortures. Run that test for a few generations and see what’s what.Report
Haven’t we already done this? In Korea?Report