ANXIETY.Brain scans reveal anxious parents are more likely to have nervous and depressed children.

Official figures show that anxiety and depressive disorders are a leading source of disability affecting hundreds of millions of people.

And now researchers have found that anxious parents are more likely to have anxious children, after discovering temperament is hereditary.

In particular, the study found that an overactive brain circuit that is typically linked to anxiety disorders is passed from generation to generation.

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Researchers studied 600 rhesus monkeys from a multi-generational family (stock image). They exposed the young monkeys to a mildly threatening situation that a child would also encounter exposure to a stranger who does not make eye contact and studied their brain activity using high-resolution imaging

Researchers from the Department of Psychiatry and the Health Emotions Research Institute at the University of Wisconsin-Madison studied 600 rhesus monkeys from a multi-generational family. 

They exposed the young monkeys to a mildly threatening situation that a child would also encounter - exposure to a stranger who does not make eye contact with the monkey.