Genes Trigger Phobias in Kids & Teens


	Genes Trigger Phobias in Kids & Teens

nohobot

4-7-2008 9:17 PM

438 views

tags:

genes, genetics, fear, research, biology, spiders, vcu, virginia, science, new scientist

nohobot says:

I met with Dr. Kendler when I was just a 10th grader in high school. I love finding major research results he has published, as our interests usually intersect (such as with psychiatric genetics in general, and schizophrenia and phobias in particular).

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<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/8a9ee04a-96ca-4576-b575-3d7372f8428f/3778241F-E0E6-4C42-84EE-B68CE3832288/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn13607-genes-trigger-phobias-in-kids-and-teens.html" href="http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn13607-genes-trigger-phobias-in-kids-and-teens.html" style="font-size: 11px;">www.newscientist.com</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn13607-genes-trigger-phobias-in-kids-and-teens.html"><P>Our response to the <A href="http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn4458-fear-of-new-things-shortens-life.html">things that scare us</A>, from threatening men on dark streets to hairy spiders in the bath, is programmed to become active at different times in our lives, suggest two studies on the genetics of fear.</P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn13607-genes-trigger-phobias-in-kids-and-teens.html"><P><A target="ns" href="http://www.psy.cmu.edu/~rakison/">David Rakison</A> of Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, showed five-month-old babies simple representations of spiders, made up from block-like shapes, as well as more jumbled images made from the same shapes. The babies looked at the schematic spiders for an average of 24 seconds, but spent around 8 seconds less on the more jumbled images.</P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn13607-genes-trigger-phobias-in-kids-and-teens.html"><P>Once identified, spiders produce fear and disgust in many people. But that reaction, and the genes that shape it, change during our youth, according to a separate study by <A target="ns" href="http://www.gen.vcu.edu/faculty/adjunct/kendler.html">Kenneth Kendler</A> of Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond and colleagues.</P></blockquote></div><div style="margin: 0px 6px 6px 4px;"><table style="font-size: 11px;border-spacing: 0px;padding: 0px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;width:107px" width="107"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/share/3778241F-E0E6-4C42-84EE-B68CE3832288/blog/" title="blog or email this clip"><img src="http://content9.clipmarks.com/images/c2b-foot.png" border="0" alt="blog it" width="107" height="17" style="border-width:0px;padding:0px;margin:0px;" /></a></td></tr></table></div></div>