Baby blues

摘要

Researchers have known for years that children whose mothers were chronically stressed during pregnancy-by famine, anxiety, the death of a relative or marital discord, for instance-show higher-than-normal rates of various psychological and behavioural disorders when they are adults. They have also known for a long time that those brought up in abusive environments often turn out to be abusive themselves. The second of these observations is usually put down to learning. The reason for the first has remained unclear. A study just published by Axel Meyer, Thomas Elbert and their colleagues at the University of Konstanz in Germany, however, points to a phenomenon called epigenet-ics as the likely answer. And if Drs Meyer and Elbert are right, it also suggests an alternative explanation for the inheritance of abusiveness.