"Inheritance of fear memories to children" to prevent the chain of abuse

2021 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 19K22766
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Research (Exploratory)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: Medium-sized Section 58:Society medicine, nursing, and related fields
• Research Institution: University of Miyazaki
• Principal Investigator: Tsutajima Jyoji 宮崎大学, 医学部, 研究員 (20771257)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): 高宮 考悟 宮崎大学, 医学部, 教授 (40283767) ; 内田 琢 宮崎大学, 医学部, 助教 (60464137)
• Project Period (FY): 2019-06-28 – 2022-03-31
• Keywords: 恐怖記憶 / 遺伝 / 児童虐待

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Heredity is a phenomenon in which traits are passed on from parent to offspring, and is one of the basic characteristics of living organisms. Surprisingly, in our preliminary experiments, we found that when we mated parental mice that had been fear-conditioned with sound and electrical stimulation and played the sound to the offspring, the offspring showed a fear response (freezing), suggesting that the "fear memory" of the parents was inherited by the offspring. This result suggests that the "fear memory" of the parents was inherited by the pups. In the present study, pups whose parents were exposed to sound-electrical stimuli exhibited freezing, and there was a significant relationship between freezing and the sex of the pups. The results of this study suggest that fear memory is transmitted from the parent mouse to its pups. In particular, fear memories were significantly manifested in female pups.

Free Research Field

神経科学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

本研究は親世代に学習した記憶、特に恐怖記憶がどのような機構を介し子の世代に受け継がれるかを、マウスを使用した実験を通して明らかにすることを目的とする。さらに、そのメカニズムを解明することで新しい遺伝の形式を分子レベルで証明する。本研究は最も遺伝しやすいと考えられる恐怖記憶を特に選び研究する。
子に伝わる恐怖記憶は必ずしも良いものとは限らず、トラウマや心的外傷後ストレス障害など マイナスとなるような記憶は排除されることが望まれる。本研究により恐怖記憶の遺伝メカニズムが解明されることで、不必要な遺伝などを取り除いたりすることが可能になるかもしれない。