genetic memory (psychology)

Language, in the modern view, is considered to be only a partial product of genetic memory. The fact that humans can have languages is a property of the nervous system that is present at birth, and thus phylogenetic in character.{{citation needed|date=December 2016}} However, perception of the particular set of phonemes specific to a native language only develops during ontogeny. There is no genetic predisposition towards the phonemic makeup of any single language. Children in a particular country are not genetically predisposed to speak the languages of that country, adding further weight to the assertion that genetic memory is not Lamarckian. However, there is scientific evidence of a gene for perfect pitch which is more common in Asian countries where pitch is critical to the meaning of a spoken word.{{cite journal |doi=10.1525/mp.2004.21.3.339 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/255620848 |via=ResearchGate |title=Absolute Pitch, Speech, and Tone Language: Some Experiments and a Proposed Framework|year=2004|last1=Deutsch|first1=Diana|last2=Henthorn|first2=Trevor|journal= Music Perception|volume=21|pages=339–356|issue=3}}{{Unreliable source?|date=April 2025|reason=Per Perfect pitch, Asian people raised in North America are less likely to develop perfect pitch.}}

Neuroscientific research on mice suggests that some experiences can influence subsequent generations. In a 2013 study,{{cite journal |doi=10.1038/nn.3594 |title=Parental olfactory experience influences behavior and neural structure in subsequent generations |year=2013 |last1=Dias |first1=Brian G |last2=Ressler |first2=Kerry J |journal=Nature Neuroscience |volume=17 |pages=89–96 |pmid=24292232 |issue=1 |pmc=3923835}}

• {{cite magazine |author=Linda Geddes |date=1 December 2013 |title=Fear of a smell can be passed down several generations |magazine=New Scientist |url=https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn24677-fear-of-a-smell-can-be-passed-down-several-generations.html |url-access=registration}}{{cite journal |doi=10.1038/nature.2013.14272 |title=Fearful memories haunt mouse descendants |year=2013 |last1=Callaway |first1=Ewen |journal=Nature|s2cid=155233262 }} mice trained to fear a specific smell passed on their trained aversion to their descendants, which were then extremely sensitive and fearful of the same smell, even though they had never encountered it, nor been trained to fear it.

Changes in brain structure were also found. The researchers concluded that "the experiences of a parent, even before conceiving, markedly influence both structure and function in the nervous system of subsequent generations".{{cite news|last=Gallagher|first=James|title='Memories' pass between generations|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-25156510|access-date=1 December 2013|publisher=BBC}}

Scientists speculate that similar genetic mechanisms could be linked with phobias, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorders, as well as other neuropsychiatric disorders, in humans.{{citation needed|date=May 2019}}

A 2025 study of Syrian refugees found epigenetic signatures of violence and stress passed through generations, which is the first human evidence of this phenomenon previously documented only in animals.{{cite news|title=Violence alters human genes for generations, researchers discover|url=https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2025/02/250227125524.htm|access-date=27 February 2025|publisher=ScienceDaily}}

In contrast to the modern view, in the 19th century, biologists considered genetic memory to be a fusion of memory and heredity, and held it to be a Lamarckian mechanism. Ribot, in 1881, for example, held that psychological and genetic memory were based upon a common mechanism, and that the former only differed from the latter in that it interacted with consciousness.{{cite book|title=Steven's Handbook of Experimental Psychology|url=https://archive.org/details/stevenshandbooke00gall|url-access=limited|editor=Harold E. Pashler|chapter=Learning Mutants|page=[https://archive.org/details/stevenshandbooke00gall/page/n212 201]|author=Louis D. Matzel|year=2002|publisher=John Wiley and Sons|isbn=0-471-65016-1}} Hering and Semon developed general theories of memory, the latter inventing the idea of the engram and concomitant processes of engraphy and ecphory. Semon divided memory into genetic memory and central nervous memory.{{cite book|title=Functional Osteology and Myology of the Shoulder in the Chiroptera|author=Timothy L. Strickler|pages=325|year=1978|publisher=Karger Publishers|isbn=3-8055-2645-8}}

This 19th-century view is not wholly dead, albeit that it stands in stark contrast to the ideas of neo-Darwinism. In modern psychology, genetic memory is generally considered a false idea. However, biologists such as Stuart A. Newman and Gerd B. Müller have contributed to the idea in the 21st century.{{cite book|title=Environment, Development, and Evolution: Toward a Synthesis|author1=Brian Keith Hall |author2=Roy Douglas Pearson |author3=Gerd B. Müller |pages=17|year=2003|publisher=MIT Press|isbn=0-262-08319-1}}

• Adaptive memory
• Collective memory—a sociological concept
• Epigenetics in learning and memory
• Instinct
• Psychological nativism

{{reflist}}

• {{cite encyclopedia|encyclopedia=The Harper Dictionary of Modern Thought|article=Genetic memory|author1=Alan Bullock |author2=Oliver Stallybrass |year=1977|publisher=Harper & Row|pages=258}}
• {{cite encyclopedia|encyclopedia=The Dictionary of Psychology|author=Raymond Joseph Corsini|article=Genetic memory|pages=410|year=1999|publisher=Psychology Press|isbn=158391028X}} Note that the definition talks of "information based upon" learning and experience, rather than about learning and experience themselves.

Category:Memory

Category:Analytical psychology