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Updated: May 5, 2026
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A Lateralized Odor Learning Model in Neonatal Rats for Dissecting Neural Circuitry Underpinning Memory Formation
Published on: August 18, 2014
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Parental olfactory experience influences behavior and neural structure in subsequent generations.
Brian G Dias1, Kerry J Ressler2
11] Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia, USA. [2] Yerkes National Primate Research Center, Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
Nature Neuroscience
|December 3, 2013
Summary
Parental trauma can be inherited. Mice exposed to specific odors before conception passed on behavioral and neuroanatomical changes to offspring, linked to epigenetic modifications in sperm DNA.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Genetics
- Epigenetics
Background:
- Parental traumatic exposure inheritance is observed but not understood.
- Olfactory molecular specificity offers a potential mechanism for studying this phenomenon.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the transgenerational inheritance of parental traumatic exposure using olfactory fear conditioning in mice.
- To elucidate the behavioral, neuroanatomical, and epigenetic mechanisms underlying this inheritance.
Main Methods:
- Odor fear conditioning in F0 mice before conception.
- Behavioral sensitivity testing in F1 and F2 generations.
- Neuroanatomical analysis of olfactory pathways.
- Bisulfite sequencing of sperm DNA for epigenetic analysis.
- In vitro fertilization, F2 inheritance, and cross-fostering experiments.
Main Results:
- F1 and F2 generations exhibited increased behavioral sensitivity to the F0-conditioned odor.
- Enhanced neuroanatomical representation of the specific olfactory pathway (Olfr151) was observed in offspring.
- CpG hypomethylation in the Olfr151 gene was detected in sperm DNA of conditioned F0 males and F1 offspring.
- Transgenerational effects were confirmed to be inherited via parental gametes.
Conclusions:
- Environmental information, specifically olfactory fear conditioning, can be inherited transgenerationally.
- Inheritance involves behavioral, neuroanatomical, and epigenetic modifications.
- Parental gametes play a crucial role in transmitting these environmentally induced changes across generations.
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