| Title: | Intergenerational transmission of emotional trauma through amygdala-dependent mother-to-infant transfer of specific fear |
| Address: | "Emotional Brain Institute, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, New York University School of Medicine, New York, NY 10016;The Nathan Kline Institute, Orangeburg, NY 10962; andMolecular and Behavioral Neuroscience Institute and Department of Psychiatry, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109 jdebiec@umich.edu. Emotional Brain Institute, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, New York University School of Medicine, New York, NY 10016;The Nathan Kline Institute, Orangeburg, NY 10962; and" |
| ISSN/ISBN: | 1091-6490 (Electronic) 0027-8424 (Print) 0027-8424 (Linking) |
| Abstract: | "Emotional trauma is transmitted across generations. For example, children witnessing their parent expressing fear to specific sounds or images begin to express fear to those cues. Within normal range, this is adaptive, although pathological fear, such as occurs in posttraumatic stress disorder or specific phobias, is also socially transmitted to children and is thus of clinical concern. Here, using a rodent model, we report a mother-to-infant transfer of fear to a novel peppermint odor, which is dependent on the mother expressing fear to that smell in pups' presence. Examination of pups' neural activity using c-Fos early gene expression and (14)C 2-deoxyglucose autoradiography during mother-to-infant fear transmission revealed lateral and basal amygdala nuclei activity, with a causal role highlighted by pharmacological inactivation of pups' amygdala preventing the fear transmission. Maternal presence was not needed for fear transmission, because an elevation of pups' corticosterone induced by the odor of the frightened mother along with a novel peppermint odor was sufficient to produce pups' subsequent aversion to that odor. Disruption of axonal tracts from the Grueneberg ganglion, a structure implicated in alarm chemosignaling, or blockade of pups' alarm odor-induced corticosterone increase prevented transfer of fear. These memories are acquired at younger ages compared with amygdala-dependent odor-shock conditioning and are more enduring following minimal conditioning. Our results provide clues to understanding transmission of specific fears across generations and its dependence upon maternal induction of pups' stress response paired with the cue to induce amygdala-dependent learning plasticity. Results are discussed within the context of caregiver emotional responses and adaptive vs. pathological fears social transmission" |
| Keywords: | "Amygdala/*physiopathology Animals Autoradiography *Fear Female Genes, fos Humans Infant *Intergenerational Relations Models, Animal *Motion Pregnancy Rats Ptsd necklace glomeruli olfaction pheromone social referencing;neuroscience;" |
| Notes: | "MedlineDebiec, Jacek Sullivan, Regina Marie eng R01 DC009910/DC/NIDCD NIH HHS/ R01 MH091451/MH/NIMH NIH HHS/ MH091451/MH/NIMH NIH HHS/ DC 009910/DC/NIDCD NIH HHS/ Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't 2014/07/30 Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2014 Aug 19; 111(33):12222-7. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1316740111. Epub 2014 Jul 28" |
