Fear of Spiders Can Develop Before Birth

http://www.livescience.com/animals/fear-of-spiders-100218.html

by mariorz • 16 years ago

13 7 16 years ago

livescience.com

nervechannel2• 16 years ago

a). They didn't link to the study. Or if they did, not anywhere I could see. Inexcusable in 'science' journalism!

b). Any control group on the babies to see if it's actually fear of spiders they learnt, or just fear?

mfukar• 16 years ago

  Any control group on the babies to see if it's actually fear of spiders they learnt, or just fear?

What would comprise the control group? Psychopath baby crickets?

streety• 16 years ago

I'm not sure what the cricket equivalent would be but in a mouse model open space and bright space anxiety tests would be a reasonable approach to understanding whether the anxiety is general or specific to spiders.

hopeless• 16 years ago

This is the previous study that was cited in the article: http://phobias.about.com/od/research/a/snakeandspidpho.htm

(I'm sure I read it in the dead-tree version on the New Scientist but can't find it now).

What's interesting is that the children simply paid more attention to spider/snake-like shapes rather than actually fear them. This seems to have been the case with both of my children who have been fascinated by spiders from an early age and will spot them from across the room. I encourage the curiosity and discourage the fear (we're in Ireland after all).

For some reason, I think it's more plausible that we have a genetic predisposition to pay attention to spiders/snakes rather than the emotional fear response. Perhaps that distinction isn't present in crickets?

yhvh• 16 years ago

When your mother has spiders in her womb you have a right to be scared.

bpd1069• 16 years ago

This is awesome stuff, esp. in regards to epigenetics.

wiki: "In biology, and specifically genetics, epigenetics is the study of inherited changes in phenotype (appearance) or gene expression caused by mechanisms other than changes in the underlying DNA sequence, hence the name epi- (Greek: επί- over, above) -genetics. These changes may remain through cell divisions for the remainder of the cell's life and may also last for multiple generations. However, there is no change in the underlying DNA sequence of the organism;[1] instead, non-genetic factors cause the organism's genes to behave (or "express themselves") differently.[2]" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epigenetics

A further round of study would be exposure to a spider of female crickets and male crickets before pregnancy, and another would be to see if there are any lasting changes passed in successive generations.

Fear of Spiders Can Develop Before Birth

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