In the latest discovery Japanese scientists have used
genetic engineering to create mice that show no
fear of felines. This experiment may shed a new light on mammal behavior and the nature of fear.
Scientists at Tokyo University as the part of experiment switched off the mouse''s instinct to cower at the smell or presence of cats — to prove that fear is
genetically hardwired and not learned through experience, as commonly believed.
In the experiment, the genetically altered mice approached cats, even snuggled up to them and played with them. The scientists chose the domesticated and docile cats for the experiment, thus less likely to pounce.
Kobayakawa’s, the team leader, findings were also published in the
science magazine ‘Nature’ last month. This new finding would help the researchers shed further light on how the
brain processes information about the outside world.
Kim Dae-soo, a neural genetics professor at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology in Seoul, who was not involved in the research, said Kobayakawa''s research could explain further what fear is, and how to control it.
More abstracts about the fearless mouse