Scotophobin (from Ancient Greek σκότος (skótos) 'darkness' and φόβος (phóbos) 'fear') is a peptide discovered by neuroscientist Georges Ungar in 1965[2]: 1 and reported in 1968. The results of Ungar and his collaborators seemed to show that scotophobin induces fear of the dark in various mammals and fish.[3] It was discovered in the brain of laboratory rats conditioned to have a fear of darkness. Moreover, it was claimed that its injection could transfer fear to unconditioned rats.[4] It was the core argument for the hypothesis about memory transfer: that memories are molecularly stored in the brain. Chemical memory transfer was a subject of conferences[5] and books. According to the current knowledge, scotophobin cannot have the effect attributed to it.[2][6]
The history of scotophobin is covered in the 2006 book Scotophobin: Darkness at the Dawn of the Search for Memory Molecules, a personal account of Louis Neal Irwin, who participated in this research.[2]
- ^ Scotophobin
- ^ a b c Irwin, Louis N. (2007). Scotophobin: Darkness at the Dawn of the Search for Memory Molecules. Hamilton Books. ISBN 978-0761835806.
- ^ Ungar, G.; Galvan, L.; Clark, R. H. (1968). "Chemical Transfer of Learned Fear". Nature. 217 (5135): 1259–1261. Bibcode:1968Natur.217.1259U. doi:10.1038/2171259a0. PMID 5643106.
- ^ Scotophobin, Webster’s New World College Dictionary
- ^ Zippel, Hans Peter, ed. (1973). Memory and Transfer of Information. doi:10.1007/978-1-4684-2052-4. ISBN 978-1-4684-2054-8.
- ^ Harry Collins, Trevor Pinch, The Golem - what everyone should know about science, Chapter "Edible knowledge: the chemical transfer of memory"