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Claustrophobia has traditionally been thought to result from conditioned responses to traumatic entrapments in small enclosed spaces. Because other anxiety disorders have genetic contributors, these researchers explored in humans and animals whether a genetic vulnerability contributes to this specific phobia.
Investigators were examining mutant mice with the gene encoding Gpm6a, a proteolipid, knocked out. They unexpectedly found that mild stress (being housed alone) induced “claustrophobia-like” behaviors (i.e., the mice avoided closed arms in a maze). The mice otherwise had apparently normal development and behavior.
The researchers next compared sequence variants of the human GPM6A gene in 47 individuals with clinical claustrophobia (18 wi…