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A woman's fears can be inherited by her children
Last reviewed: 02.07.2025
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Experts from the United States have found out that objects of fear arise in a person from infancy, and what a person will be afraid of in life depends on the fears of his mother before and during pregnancy. The fears and phobias of a woman directly affect what her child will be afraid of in life.
Scientists were led to these conclusions by experiments with laboratory rodents, the results of which were published in one of the scientific journals.
For the study, scientists selected laboratory rats. During the experiments, biologists studied how traumatic experiences experienced by females (even long before pregnancy) would affect the offspring.
Scientists sprayed a mint scent in cages with rodents, after which the female rats received an electric shock, which was supposed to lead to the development of a conditioned reflex. After the rats developed a reflex, the female rats became pregnant and gave birth to pups. Scientists also selected another group of newborn rats, whose mothers were not intimidated by the mint scent and electric shock. As a result, scientists found that the smell of mint causes fear only in the first group of newborn rats (whose mothers had a traumatic experience), in addition, fear from the smell of mint arose even in cases where the rats were completely alone in the cages, without their mother.
Then the scientists gave the rats a special agent that blocks the amygdala, after which the fear of the mint smell that they had learned from their mother disappeared. This experiment allowed the specialists to determine the area of the brain that is responsible for the formation of fear in rodents.
Considering that the principle of fear formation in rodents and humans is similar, scientists assume that they have managed to find a way to prevent the inheritance of various fears and phobias in humans.
As the leading specialist of the research project noted, newborns are not able to independently recognize danger, therefore, the source of information about what to be afraid of is the mother. It is quite important that the child takes over the mother's traumatic experience on a subconscious level and in the future fear or phobias can haunt a person for quite a long time, possibly until the end of life. Specialists especially emphasized the fact that fears and phobias can provoke obsessive states and already as an adult a person is forced to overcome the fears inherited from the mother.
A recent study by specialists from the Wisconsin Research Institute has shown that experiences and stress in infancy can change the structure of the brain. As it turned out, children who experienced a strong shock at the age of 2-3 had significantly reduced volumes of some areas of the brain, which directly affected the adequate expression of emotions, communication, and also the ability to learn. Scientists cannot say exactly what factors provoke such changes in the brain. However, experts once again note that it is adults who are responsible for how their children will grow up.
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