Not satisfied with a "Super Mouse", a team of University of Tokyo researchers genetically engineered a mouse that does not fear cats, simply by controlling its sense of smell.
National Institutes of Health
Knocking out a gene in the brain’s fear hub creates mice unperturbed by situations that would normally trigger instinctive or learned fear responses, researchers funded in part by the National Institutes of Health have discovered. The findings may lead to improved treatments for anxiety disorders (http://www.nimh.nih.gov/healthinformation/anxietymenu.cfm), they suggest.
Fear memories are so essential for survival that they are easily formed and rarely lost.
Scientists now think that what they learn from these mice could be used to develop new anti-anxiety agents.
Story Links:
http://www.nih.gov/news/radio/dec2005/12162005mice.htm
http://www.nih.gov/news/pr/nov2005/nimh-22.htm
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1 comment:
That scientists have the ability to remove the fear response from animals sets off all kinds of fear responses in me!
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