Dias and colleague Dr. Kerry Ressler exposed mice to a cherry blossom scent and gave them electric foot shocks, so that the animals learned to associate the scent with the fear of being shocked. Other mice were exposed to a neutral scent or no scent.
The mice were allowed to mate, and their offspring were exposed to varying amounts of the cherry scent. Those mice were also allowed to mate, and their own offspring were exposed to the scent as well.
The first-generation offspring were more sensitive to the cherry scent — they could detect the scent at very low levels and avoided spending a lot of time near the odor. What's more, the next generation of offspring showed the same odor sensitivity, according to results of the study, detailed Dec. 2 in the journal Nature Neuroscience.