Contemporary theories are based on the idea that the frequent experiences of a species can become incorporated into that species' genetic code, not by a Lamarckian process that encodes particular reminiscences, but by a a lot vaguer tendency to encode a readiness to reply in sure methods to sure stimuli. Language, in the fashionable view, is taken into account to be only a partial product of genetic memory. The fact that people can have languages is a property of the nervous system that is current at delivery, and thus phylogenetic in character. Nonetheless, notion of the actual set of phonemes particular to a native language solely develops throughout ontogeny. There is no such thing as a genetic predisposition in direction of the phonemic make-up of any single language. Kids in a selected country usually are not genetically predisposed to talk the languages of that country, adding further weight to the assertion that genetic memory is not Lamarckian. Nevertheless, there may be scientific evidence of a gene for excellent pitch which is extra widespread in Asian countries the place pitch is essential to the which means of a spoken word.

Neuroscientific analysis on mice means that some experiences can affect subsequent generations. Changes in mind structure were also found. The researchers concluded that "the experiences of a father or mother, even before conceiving, markedly influence each structure and function within the nervous system of subsequent generations". Scientists speculate that similar genetic mechanisms might be linked with phobias, anxiety, and publish-traumatic stress disorders, as well as other neuropsychiatric disorders, in humans. A 2025 study of Syrian refugees found epigenetic signatures of violence and stress passed by way of generations, which is the first human proof of this phenomenon beforehand documented solely in animals. In distinction to the fashionable view, in the 19th century, biologists considered genetic memory to be a fusion of memory and heredity, Memory Wave and held it to be a Lamarckian mechanism. Ribot, in 1881, for instance, held that psychological and genetic memory have been based upon a common mechanism, and that the former solely differed from the latter in that it interacted with consciousness.

Hering and Memory Wave Experience Semon developed common theories of memory, the latter inventing the thought of the engram and Memory Wave concomitant processes of engraphy and ecphory. Semon divided memory into genetic memory and central nervous Memory Wave Experience. This nineteenth-century view is not wholly useless, albeit that it stands in stark contrast to the concepts of neo-Darwinism. In trendy psychology, genetic memory is generally considered a false thought. Nevertheless, biologists equivalent to Stuart A. Newman and Gerd B. Müller have contributed to the thought in the twenty first century. Rodolfo R. Llinas (2001). I of the vortex: from neurons to self. Deutsch, Diana