WEBVTT - How Do Fainting Goats Work? 0:00:01.840 --> 0:00:07.640 Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio, Hey brain Stuff 0:00:07.680 --> 0:00:13.920 Lauren vogelbam Here. Goats are the most multipurpose livestock animal 0:00:14.000 --> 0:00:17.000 that I know of. They can be raised specifically as 0:00:17.040 --> 0:00:20.800 a food source for their rich, slightly funky meat or milk. 0:00:22.079 --> 0:00:24.560 When raised for their hair or hide, they produce some 0:00:24.600 --> 0:00:27.800 of the most luxurious fibers on the market. Angora and 0:00:27.880 --> 0:00:32.240 cashmere both come from goats. They're also happy to clear 0:00:32.320 --> 0:00:35.280 land of overgrowth. In lots of places, you can rent 0:00:35.320 --> 0:00:39.559 goats to essentially mow your lawn, and of course they 0:00:39.560 --> 0:00:45.560 can make adorable and entertaining companions. One particular breed of goat, however, 0:00:45.720 --> 0:00:49.440 is known for a rather different trait, suddenly stiffening up 0:00:49.600 --> 0:00:54.560 and appearing to faint. Footage of these fainting goats occasionally 0:00:54.560 --> 0:00:58.520 makes the rounds on social media. Yet despite all appearances, 0:00:58.640 --> 0:01:01.640 these goats aren't weak of home heart or abnormally prone 0:01:01.640 --> 0:01:05.399 to fright, and they're not actually fainting. They don't lose 0:01:05.440 --> 0:01:08.600 consciousness at all during these episodes. They just fall over. 0:01:09.920 --> 0:01:12.480 This is caused by what's basically a delay in the 0:01:12.520 --> 0:01:16.840 relaxation of muscles that tends up involuntarily during surprise or 0:01:16.840 --> 0:01:20.760 other excitement. Think of what happens when you startle, You 0:01:21.040 --> 0:01:25.080 tense up. Briefly, what's happening in these goats is that 0:01:25.160 --> 0:01:28.360 they lock into that tension for several seconds, and if 0:01:28.360 --> 0:01:30.839 they happened to be on uneven ground when they tens, 0:01:31.160 --> 0:01:35.039 they're likely to tip over. This happens due to a 0:01:35.120 --> 0:01:39.960 genetic medical condition known as myotonia congenita, a congenita meaning 0:01:40.040 --> 0:01:44.320 present at birth. The goats are more properly called myotonic, 0:01:44.840 --> 0:01:50.040 not fainting. The severity of the condition varies. Some myotonic 0:01:50.040 --> 0:01:53.680 goats will stiffen up every time they're startled, others less frequently. 0:01:55.000 --> 0:01:58.400 Symptoms often lessen over time, and some animals are better 0:01:58.440 --> 0:02:02.040 able to adapt to the condition. Younger goats are more 0:02:02.040 --> 0:02:04.920 prone to tumble when startled, but as they grow older, 0:02:05.280 --> 0:02:07.840 many eventually manage to avoid falling down at all during 0:02:07.880 --> 0:02:12.919 episodes and may simply trot away on stiffened legs. Older 0:02:12.960 --> 0:02:15.760 goats also tend to become more secure with their environment 0:02:15.960 --> 0:02:20.320 and startle less easily. Today, let's talk about this rare 0:02:20.360 --> 0:02:23.320 breed of goat and how my atonia affects their lives, 0:02:23.720 --> 0:02:26.320 including how they even came to be considered a breed, 0:02:26.600 --> 0:02:29.200 and why anyone would breed for my atonia in the 0:02:29.240 --> 0:02:35.400 first place. To understand what happens what a myotonic goat startles, first, 0:02:35.480 --> 0:02:39.600 let's look at what happens under normal conditions. When a 0:02:39.639 --> 0:02:42.800 goat is surprised by a sudden movement or sound, or 0:02:43.000 --> 0:02:45.520 maybe if it just saw a farmer friend and is 0:02:45.639 --> 0:02:48.880 really excited about feeding time or getting to play. The 0:02:48.919 --> 0:02:52.560 animal's eyes and ears relay that startling data to its brain, 0:02:53.000 --> 0:02:56.359 which then sends an electrical signal to these skeletal muscles, 0:02:56.400 --> 0:02:59.600 such as those in the leg and neck, involving voluntary movement, 0:03:00.200 --> 0:03:04.959 causing a momentary tensing. This is often referred to as 0:03:05.040 --> 0:03:09.160 the fight or flight response. Just think of how it 0:03:09.240 --> 0:03:12.880 feels to be startled or have a friend remind you. 0:03:12.880 --> 0:03:17.160 You'll find your voluntary muscles contract and tighten for a second. 0:03:17.919 --> 0:03:20.240 This is your brain telling your muscles that the time 0:03:20.320 --> 0:03:23.799 has come to possibly confront or run away from an 0:03:23.800 --> 0:03:27.959 immediate threat. Though of course we experience this in other 0:03:28.000 --> 0:03:31.400 situations too. You might feel a tense rush when you 0:03:31.440 --> 0:03:34.320 get up to give a presentation or see someone that 0:03:34.360 --> 0:03:38.480 you have a crush on. Normally, this tensing is followed 0:03:38.520 --> 0:03:42.280 by an immediate relaxation of the affected muscles, allowing the 0:03:42.320 --> 0:03:46.000 typical person or goat to turn and run away from 0:03:46.040 --> 0:03:50.480 a perceived threat or otherwise respond to the situation. But 0:03:50.640 --> 0:03:54.119 with my atonia, the muscles stay tensed for maybe five 0:03:54.160 --> 0:03:59.160 to twenty seconds before slowly relaxing. It's not painful, and 0:03:59.240 --> 0:04:01.800 the goats seem to recover just fine in the aftermath. 0:04:02.960 --> 0:04:06.040 What's happening here is that, due to differing functions at 0:04:06.040 --> 0:04:09.520 the cellular level, the voluntary muscles of my atonic animals 0:04:09.680 --> 0:04:12.520 receive the electric signal from the brain to tense and 0:04:12.640 --> 0:04:16.000 then keep tensing instead of releasing, sort of like a 0:04:16.080 --> 0:04:20.760 skipping record. This happens because my aotonia affects a particular 0:04:20.839 --> 0:04:25.920 gene called clcn one, or chloride channel one. This gene 0:04:26.000 --> 0:04:29.159 is involved in the production and regulation of proteins, which 0:04:29.160 --> 0:04:33.880 are vital to the flexing and relaxing of skeletal muscles. Basically, 0:04:34.360 --> 0:04:38.080 positively charged sodium ions relay the brain's message for the 0:04:38.160 --> 0:04:43.640 muscle cells to contract. Negatively charged chloride ions, which chloride 0:04:43.680 --> 0:04:48.280 channel one affects, tell the muscle cells two relax. Myotonia 0:04:48.360 --> 0:04:52.240 results in an abnormal channel of chloride ions, which throws 0:04:52.279 --> 0:04:56.440 this relationship out of balance. The muscle cells wind up 0:04:56.480 --> 0:04:59.800 with more than enough sodium but not enough chloride, which 0:05:00.040 --> 0:05:03.680 uses repetitive electrical signals from the brain, such as those 0:05:03.720 --> 0:05:08.880 associated with being startled, to result in stiffness. The condition 0:05:09.000 --> 0:05:13.680 does happen in other animals as well, including humans. In people, 0:05:13.760 --> 0:05:17.359 it's categorized into two types, named for researchers who broke 0:05:17.440 --> 0:05:22.480 ground in their study, Thompson type and Becker type. Becker 0:05:22.520 --> 0:05:25.159 type is more common and can be more severe, with 0:05:25.240 --> 0:05:28.719 symptoms often delayed until a patient is a few years old. 0:05:29.480 --> 0:05:33.240 Both are highly treatable with physical therapy, exercise, and or medication, 0:05:34.240 --> 0:05:37.080 though of course we have a greater capacity to be 0:05:37.160 --> 0:05:42.080 frustrated or embarrassed about it. The condition is hereditary and 0:05:42.160 --> 0:05:44.719 can be either a dominant trait, in which the gene 0:05:44.720 --> 0:05:47.479 only has to be inherited from one parent, or a 0:05:47.520 --> 0:05:50.440 recessive trait, in which the gene is carried by both parents. 0:05:51.600 --> 0:05:55.640 Aware fainting goats differ from other myotonic animals, however, is 0:05:55.640 --> 0:05:59.560 that they are sometimes bred to encourage myotonia in their offspring. 0:06:00.839 --> 0:06:03.880 Fainting goats only exist as a breed because humans want 0:06:03.880 --> 0:06:07.840 them around. It's hard to imagine an animal with myetonia 0:06:07.880 --> 0:06:11.240 congenita lasting long in the wild. If a predator was 0:06:11.279 --> 0:06:14.279 to approach, the animal would stiffen up, and natural selection 0:06:14.360 --> 0:06:18.440 would take its course. The strong survive and the weak parish. 0:06:19.160 --> 0:06:21.839 That is, unless human breeders are there to protect the 0:06:21.839 --> 0:06:26.920 weaker animals and encourage their traits. While my atonia likely 0:06:26.960 --> 0:06:30.760 predates recorded history, the encouragement of the trait and goats 0:06:30.920 --> 0:06:33.600 and the resulting emergence of fainting goats as a distinct 0:06:33.640 --> 0:06:36.600 breed can be dated back to the early eighteen eighties 0:06:36.839 --> 0:06:41.200 in Marshall County, Tennessee. Some accounts link the breed to 0:06:41.279 --> 0:06:45.520 a particular farm worker named John Tinsley, who reportedly brought 0:06:45.560 --> 0:06:48.560 a number of goats exhibiting symptoms of myetonia down from 0:06:48.560 --> 0:06:52.800 Nova Scotia, Canada. Over a century later, herds of fainting 0:06:52.839 --> 0:06:57.240 goats could be found throughout the United States. Humans have 0:06:57.320 --> 0:07:01.680 always selectively bred animals for two base reasons, to encourage 0:07:01.680 --> 0:07:05.760 certain behavioral traits and or to encourage certain physical features. 0:07:07.000 --> 0:07:10.080 For example, a working farm dog may be bred for 0:07:10.360 --> 0:07:14.600 herding instincts or stamina. Pet dogs may be bred for 0:07:14.640 --> 0:07:19.200 their trainability or their cute, little fuzzy faces. My Atonic 0:07:19.240 --> 0:07:23.200 goats are no different as pets or additions to a 0:07:23.240 --> 0:07:27.280 farm that welcomes visitors. My Atonic goats are uniquely entertaining 0:07:27.640 --> 0:07:31.240 and retain the temperament that makes most goats good companion animals. 0:07:32.520 --> 0:07:35.040 But a thing about goats is that they are natural 0:07:35.080 --> 0:07:38.920 climbers and jumpers, so they are also natural escape artists. 0:07:38.960 --> 0:07:43.200 When fenced in. Farmers often need to expend extra effort 0:07:43.280 --> 0:07:47.960 to keep the animals enclosed, but my atonia tends to 0:07:48.040 --> 0:07:51.760 curb that behavior. The excitement of climbing and jumping can 0:07:51.800 --> 0:07:54.960 triggerous spell, so the goats are more likely to stay put, 0:07:56.200 --> 0:07:58.880 and when they are raised for their meat, all of 0:07:58.920 --> 0:08:02.239 that excessive muscle tan can result in greater muscle mass, 0:08:02.360 --> 0:08:05.200 less body fat, a higher meat to bone ratio, and 0:08:05.400 --> 0:08:08.920 more tender meat than other breeds of goat. A whether 0:08:09.000 --> 0:08:11.720 food or friend, Fainting goats don't seem to be going 0:08:11.760 --> 0:08:15.560 away anytime soon, a numbering an estimated four to five 0:08:15.600 --> 0:08:19.120 thousand in total, the animals are recognized as an official 0:08:19.160 --> 0:08:23.800 breed and are raised throughout the US and beyond. Enthusiasts 0:08:23.840 --> 0:08:27.880 have even established breed standards and regularly show their prize 0:08:27.920 --> 0:08:35.920 animals at livestock festivals. Today's episode is based on the 0:08:36.000 --> 0:08:39.040 article how fainting Goats Work on how stuffworks dot Com, 0:08:39.080 --> 0:08:41.920 written by Robert Lamb. Brain Stuff is production of by 0:08:41.960 --> 0:08:44.440 Heart Radio in partnership with how Stuffworks dot Com and 0:08:44.520 --> 0:08:47.439 is produced by Tyler Klain. For four more podcasts from 0:08:47.480 --> 0:08:50.880 my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or 0:08:50.880 --> 0:08:52.760 wherever you listen to your favorite shows.