Study sheds light on how kids inherit anxiety from parents

If you wonder that whether your anxious behaviour will affect your child or not then the answer is probably yes, for a new study has claimed that anxious parents are more likely to have anxious offspring.

University of Wisconsin research showed how an over-active brain circuit involving three brain areas inherited from generation to generation may set the stage for developing anxiety and depressive disorders.

It also shows that elevated activity in this prefrontal-limbic-midbrain circuit was likely to be involved in mediating the in-born risk for extreme anxiety, anxious temperament that could be observed in early childhood.

Author Dr. Ned Kalin said that over-activity of these three brain regions were inherited brain alterations that were directly linked to the later life risk of developing anxiety and depression.

After conducting the research on 600 monkeys, the researchers found out that about 35 per cent of variation in anxiety-like tendencies could be explained by family history.

Kalin explained that anxiety could provide an evolutionary advantage as it helped a person to recognise and avoid danger, but when the circuits get over-active, it becomes a problem and could result in anxiety and depressive disorders.

Surprisingly, the studies found that it was the function of the brain structures and not their size that was responsible for the genetic transfer of an anxious temperament.

The research is published in the Journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences