I've read the paper. We don't know the exact mechanism by which this works, but I would bet that it's related to the chemical exposure (as the authors suggest in the Discussion section), i.e. exposure to the scent causes ingestion of the chemical which then affects the genetic contents of the gametes. That's really really interesting, but isn't the same as "learned behavior can be inherited". In this case, it looks like it's sensitivity to the scent that is inherited, which was confirmed not just via behavioral methods but by looking at the neurons devoted to it.
It makes more sense that learned behavior and can be inherited by offspring rather than random mutations producing complex advantageous behavior but exciting to hear that it's been replicated.<p>I wonder if offspring of older parents possess an advantage of possibly having more learned behavior passed down.
This isn't particularly rigorous. Like all of these studies that claim to support epigenetic memory in mice, they've started with mixed genetic background mice, so that none of the offspring are genetically identical to the parents. You can't rule out the possibility that genetic differences are responsible for this result.<p>This is publication bias in action. Studies that don't show epigenetic inheritance don't get published. Where are all the properly controlled experiments using inbred strains?
Sometimes I wonder what the epigenetic effects of porn will be on the long run. The illusion of living in a plentiful environment could have unforeseen consequences over the brain of our children.