The social brain meets the reactive genome: neuroscience, epigenetics and the new social biology

Maternal gut-microbiota impacts the influence of intrauterine environmental stressors on the modulation of human cognitive development and behavior

This review examines the longstanding debate of nature and intrauterine environmental challenges that shapes human development and behavior, with a special focus on the influence of maternal prenatal gut microbes. Recent research has revealed the critical role of the gut microbiome in human neurodevelopment, and evidence suggest that maternal microbiota can impact fetal gene and microenvironment composition, as well as immunophysiology and neurochemical responses. Furthermore, intrauterine neuroepigenetic regulation may be influenced by maternal microbiota, capable of having long-lasting effects on offspring behavior and cognition. By examining the complex relationship between maternal prenatal gut microbes and human development, this review highlights the importance of early-life environmental factors in shaping neurodevelopment and cognition.

Doing good well (Karma Yoga, the path of selfless action): Psychotherapeutic lessons from the East

The tripartite classification of mental faculties into cognition, affect, and conation (motivation and action) continues to be the edifice on which the mind and the methods to address mental afflictions are studied. Eastern spiritual traditions offer insights into mental health as it pertains to each of these domains. Following up on our previous paper on the cognition path to psychotherapy (Knowing oneself, or Jnana Yoga), we herein focus on the path of selfless action (Karma Yoga). We review eastern concepts on the nature of karma and the approaches to optimal action (the will to do things, doing the right things, and doing them well). We then place these eastern insights in the context of emerging concepts in psychology on motivation and action. Current psychological concepts such as autonomy and intrinsic motivation, mastery, flow and growth mindset, higher purpose and value driven self-less action, equanimity and balance are convergent with ancient eastern concepts. We also review current neuroscientific underpinnings (such as neural circuitries, neurotransmitter systems and epigenetics and how these facilitate neural plasticity) relevant to karma, including free will, focused action, prosocial behaviors, extrinsic and intrinsic and motivation. These concepts have significant implications for psychotherapeutic models, especially in the areas of positive psychology and preventive psychiatry.

Neurophysiology and Molecular Basis of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Patients with Insomnia: Implications for Non-Pharmacological Approaches

Cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) is a widely used psychological intervention known for its effectiveness in improving insomnia symptoms. However, the neurophysiological mechanisms underlying the cognitive-behavioral treatment of insomnia remain unclear. This narrative review aimed to elucidate the neurophysiological and molecular mechanisms of CBT-I, focusing on the fields of psychology, neurophysiology, neuroendocrinology, immunology, medical microbiology, epigenetics, neuroimaging and brain function. A comprehensive search was conducted using databases including: PubMed, Embase, PsycINFO and Web of Science, with customized search strategies tailored to each database that included controlled vocabulary and alternative synonyms. It revealed that CBT-I may have a beneficial effect on the central nervous system, boost the immune system, upregulate genes involved in interferon and antibody responses, enhance functional connectivity between the hippocampus and frontoparietal areas and increase cortical gray matter thickness. In conclusion, an integrated model is proposed that elucidates the mechanisms of CBT-I and offers a new direction for investigations into its neurophysiological mechanisms.

Deciphering Depression: Epigenetic Mechanisms and Treatment Strategies

Depression, a significant mental health disorder, is under intense research scrutiny to uncover its molecular foundations. Epigenetics, which focuses on controlling gene expression without altering DNA sequences, offers promising avenues for innovative treatment. This review explores the pivotal role of epigenetics in depression, emphasizing two key aspects: (I) identifying epigenetic targets for new antidepressants and (II) using personalized medicine based on distinct epigenetic profiles, highlighting potential epigenetic focal points such as DNA methylation, histone structure alterations, and non-coding RNA molecules such as miRNAs. Variations in DNA methylation in individuals with depression provide opportunities to target genes that are associated with neuroplasticity and synaptic activity. Aberrant histone acetylation may indicate that antidepressant strategies involve enzyme modifications. Modulating miRNA levels can reshape depression-linked gene expression. The second section discusses personalized medicine based on epigenetic profiles. Analyzing these patterns could identify biomarkers associated with treatment response and susceptibility to depression, facilitating tailored treatments and proactive mental health care. Addressing ethical concerns regarding epigenetic information, such as privacy and stigmatization, is crucial in understanding the biological basis of depression. Therefore, researchers must consider these issues when examining the role of epigenetics in mental health disorders. The importance of epigenetics in depression is a critical aspect of modern medical research. These findings hold great potential for novel antidepressant medications and personalized treatments, which would significantly improve patient outcomes, and transform psychiatry. As research progresses, it is expected to uncover more complex aspects of epigenetic processes associated with depression, enhance our comprehension, and increase the effectiveness of therapies.

Epigenetic mechanisms linking early-life adversities and mental health

Early-life adversities, whether prenatal or postnatal exposure, have been linked to adverse mental health outcomes later in life increasing the risk of several psychiatric disorders. Research on its neurobiological consequences demonstrated an association between exposure to adversities and persistent alterations in the structure, function, and connectivity of the brain. Consistent evidence supports the idea that regulation of gene expression through epigenetic mechanisms are involved in embedding the impact of early-life experiences in the genome and mediate between social environments and later behavioral phenotypes. In addition, studies from rodent models and humans suggest that these experiences and the acquired risk factors can be transmitted through epigenetic mechanisms to offspring and the following generations potentially contributing to a cycle of disease or disease risk. However, one of the important aspects of epigenetic mechanisms, unlike genetic sequences that are fixed and unchangeable, is that although the epigenetic markings are long-lasting, they are nevertheless potentially reversible. In this review, we summarize our current understanding of the epigenetic mechanisms involved in the mental health consequences derived from early-life exposure to malnutrition, maltreatment and poverty, adversities with huge and pervasive impact on mental health. We also discuss the evidence about transgenerational epigenetic inheritance in mammals and experimental data suggesting that suitable social and pharmacological interventions could reverse adverse epigenetic modifications induced by early-life negative social experiences. In this regard, these studies must be accompanied by efforts to determine the causes that promote these adversities and that result in health inequity in the population.

Individual differences in social homeostasis

The concept of “social homeostasis”, introduced by Matthews and Tye in 2019, has provided a framework with which to consider our changing individual needs for social interaction, and the neurobiology underlying this system. This model was conceived as including detector systems, a control center with a setpoint, and effectors which allow us to seek out or avoid additional social contact. In this article, we review and theorize about the many different factors that might contribute to the setpoint of a person or animal, including individual, social, cultural, and other environmental factors. We conclude with a consideration of the empirical challenges of this exciting new model.

Genetic and epigenetic effects on couple adjustment in context of romantic relationship: A scoping systematic review

Introduction: Couples' relationships defined by a complex interaction between the two partners and their intrapersonal traits. Romantic; relationships and love are associated with marital satisfaction and stability, as well as couples' happiness and health. Personality traits influence romantic relationships and, personality influenced by genetical and non-genetically factors. The roles of non-genetically factors such as socioeconomic position and external appearance have revealed in determining the quality of romantic relationships. Methods: We; performed a scoping systematic review to assess the association between genetics and epigenetic factors and romantic relationship. Relevant articles were identified by PubMed, EMBASE, Web of Science, Scopus, and the APA PsycInfo searching between inception and 4 June 2022. Results: Different studies evaluated the associated polymorphisms in 15 different genes or chromosomal regions. In the first step; we classified them into four groups: (1) Oxytocin-related signaling pathway (OXTR, CD38, and AVPR1A); (2) Serotonin-related signaling pathway (SLC6A4, HTR1A, and HTR2A); (3) Dopamine and catecholamine-related signaling pathway (DRD1, DRD2, DRD4, ANKK1, and COMT); and (4) other genes (HLA, GABRA2, OPRM1, and Y-DNA haplogroup D-M55). Then, we evaluated and extracted significant polymorphisms that affect couple adjustment and romantic relationships. Discussion: Overall, the findings suggest that genetic and epigenetics variants play a key role in marital adjustment and romantic relationships over time.

Rapid changes of miRNAs-20, -30, -410, -515, -134, and -183 and telomerase with psychological activity: A one year study on the relaxation response and epistemological considerations

Background and aim

Mental stress represents a pivotal factor in cardiovascular diseases. The mechanism by which stress produces its deleterious effects is still under study, but one of the most explored pathways is inflammation-aging and cell senescence. In this scenario, circulating microRNAs appear to be regulatory elements of the telomerase activity and alternative splicing within the nuclear factor kappa-light-chain-enhancer (NF-κB) network. Anti-stress techniques appeared to be able to slow down the inflammatory and aging processes. As we recently verified, the practice of the relaxation response (RR) counteracted psychological stress and determined favorable changes of the NF-κB, p53, and toll-like receptor-4 (TLR-4) gene expression and in neurotransmitters, hormones, cytokines, and inflammatory circulating microRNAs. We aimed to verify a possible change in the serum levels of six other micro-RNAs of cardiovascular interest, involved in cell senescence and in the NF-κB network (miRNAs -20, -30, -410, -515, -134, and -183), and tested the activity of telomerase in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs).

Experimental procedure

We measured the aforementioned molecules in the serum of patients with ischemic heart disease (and healthy controls) immediately before and after a relaxation response session, three times (after the baseline), in one year of follow-up.

Results

According to our data, the miRNA-20 and -30 levels and PBMCs-telomerase activity increased during the RR while the -410 and -515 levels decreased. During the RR sessions, both miRNA-134 and -183 decreased.

Conclusion

The mediators considered in this exploratory work appeared to vary rapidly with the psychological activity (in particular when focused on relaxation techniques) showing that psychological activity should be part of the future research on epigenetics. Epistemological perspectives are also discussed.

Well-Being and Cooking Behavior: Using the Positive Emotion, Engagement, Relationships, Meaning, and Accomplishment (PERMA) Model as a Theoretical Framework

The prevalence of psychosocial distress is increasing in the United States. At the same time, the American default lifestyle has steadily displaced household food production with industrial food production, despite increased cultural interest in cooking. An important focus of cooking research to date has been on cooking's association with nutrition and dietary quality. Less focus has been placed on how cooking might foster the qualities that allow for mitigation of psychosocial distress and promote well-being. Rooted in its evolutionary role in the human experience, cooking requires skills and knowledge that have the capacity to encourage aspects of well-being as described by Seligman as flourishing. Evidence for a beneficial role of cooking in psychosocial health exists, but the exploration is limited, potentially due to lack of a theoretical context to explain these benefits. From this perspective, we review the current literature showing the application of Seligman's prominent well-being model, Positive emotion, Engagement, Relationships, Meaning, and Accomplishment (PERMA), to cooking, defined as the activity related to the preparation of food or a meal. We propose that the PERMA model as applied to cooking may function as a theoretical framework to explore psychosocial outcomes associated with cooking. Broader application of this approach may also help to further the application of positive psychology in the developing literature around psychosocial health and nutrition-related chronic diseases.

Troubling Neurobiological Vulnerability: Psychiatric Risk and the Adverse Milieu in Environmental Epigenetics Research

In post-genomic science, the development of etiological models of neurobiological vulnerability to psychiatric risk has expanded exponentially in recent decades, particularly since the neuromolecular and biosocial turns in basic research. Among this research is that of McGill Group for Suicide Studies (MGSS) whose work centers on the identification of major risk factors and epigenetic traits that help to identify a specific profile of vulnerability to psychiatric conditions (e.g., depression) and predict high-risk behaviors (e.g., suicidality). Although the MGSS has attracted attention for its environmental epigenetic models of suicide risk over the years and the translation of findings from rodent studies into human populations, its overall agenda includes multiple research axes, ranging from retrospective studies to clinical and epidemiological research. Common to these research axes is a concern with the long-term effects of adverse experiences on maladaptive trajectories and negative mental health outcomes. As these findings converge with post-genomic understandings of health and also translate into new orientations in global public health, our article queries the ways in which neurobiological vulnerability is traced, measured, and profiled in environmental epigenetics and in the MGSS research. Inspired by the philosophy of Georges Canguilhem and by literature from the social studies of risk and critical public health, we explore how the epigenetic models of neurobiological vulnerability tie into a particular way of thinking about the normal, the pathological, and the milieu in terms of risk. Through this exploration, we examine how early life adversity (ELA) and neurobiological vulnerability are localized and materialized in those emerging models while also considering their broader conceptual and translational implications in the contexts of mental health and global public health interventions. In particular, we consider how narratives of maladaptive trajectories and vulnerable selves who are at risk of harm might stand in as a "new pathological" with healthy trajectories and resilient selves being potentially equated with a "new normal" way of living in the face of adversity. By troubling neurobiological vulnerability as a universal biosocial condition, we suggest that an ecosocial perspective may help us to think differently about the dynamics of mental health and distress in the adverse milieu.

Retinol palmitate against toxicogenic damages of antineoplastic drugs on normal and tumor cells

The lack of tissue selectivity of anticancer drugs generates intense collateral and adverse effects of cancer patients, making the incorporation of vitamins or micronutrients into the diet of individuals to reduce side or adverse effects of antineoplastics. The study aimed to evaluate the effects of retinol palmitate (RP) on the toxicogenic damages induced by cyclophosphamide (CPA), doxorubicin (DOX) and its association with the AC protocol (CPA + DOX), in Sarcoma 180 (S-180) tumor cell line, using the micronuclei test with a block of cytokinesis (CBMN); and in non-tumor cells derived from Mus musculus using the comet assay. The results suggest that CPA, DOX and AC protocol induced significant toxicogenic damages (P < 0.05) on the S-180 cells by induction of micronuclei, cytoplasmic bridges, nuclear buds, apoptosis, and cell necrosis, proving their antitumor effects, and significant damage (P < 0.001) to the genetic material of peripheral blood cells of healthy mice, proving the genotoxic potential of these drugs. However, RP modulated the toxicogenic effects of antineoplastic tested both in the CBMN test (P < 0.05), at the concentrations of 1, 10 and 100 IU/mL; as in the comet assay (P < 0.001) at the concentration of 100 IU/kg for the index and frequency of genotoxic damage. The accumulated results suggest that RP reduced the action of antineoplastics in non-tumor cells as well as the cytotoxic, mutagenic, and cell death in neoplastic cells.

Pathways linking childhood trauma to rural, unmarried, African American father involvement through oxytocin receptor gene methylation

Father involvement contributes uniquely to children's developmental outcomes. The antecedents of father involvement among unmarried, African American fathers from rural areas, however, have been largely overlooked. The present study tested a conceptual model linking retrospective reports of childhood trauma and early adulthood social instability to father involvement among unmarried, African American men living in resource-poor, rural communities in the southeastern United States. We hypothesized these factors would influence father involvement indirectly, via DNA methylation of the oxytocin receptor gene (OXTR). A sample of 192 fathers participated in 3 waves of data collection in early adulthood. Fathers reported on social instability at Wave 1; OXTR methylation was assessed via saliva samples at Wave 2; and measures of father involvement, retrospective childhood trauma, and quality of the fathers' relationships with their children's mothers were collected at Wave 3. Structural equation modeling indicated that childhood trauma was related directly to reduced levels of father involvement and to increased social instability. Social instability was associated with elevated levels of OXTR methylation, which in turn predicted decreased father involvement. The indirect effect from social instability to father involvement via OXTR methylation was significant. These associations did not operate through fathers' relationship with the child's mother and remained significant even accounting for associations between interparental relationship quality and father involvement. Findings suggest that OXTR methylation might be a biological mechanism linking social instability to father involvement among unmarried, African American fathers in vulnerable contexts and underscore the detrimental influence of childhood trauma on father involvement. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Pathways linking adverse environments to emerging adults' substance abuse and depressive symptoms: A prospective analysis of rural African American men

For African American emerging adult men, developmental challenges are evident in their escalating substance abuse and depressive symptoms; this is particularly true for men from low-resource communities. The present study tests a developmental model linking childhood adversity and contemporaneous contextual stressors to increases in emerging adults' substance use and depressive symptoms, indirectly, via increases in defensive/hostile relational schemas and social developmental risk factors (e.g., risky peers and romantic partners, lack of involvement in school or work). We also advance exploratory hypotheses regarding DNA methylation in the oxytocin receptor gene (OXTR) as a moderator of the effects of stress on relational schemas. Hypotheses were tested with three waves of data from 505 rural African American men aged 19-25 years. Adverse childhood experiences predicted exposure to emerging adult contextual stressors. Contextual stressors forecast increases in defensive/hostile relational schemas, which increased social developmental risk factors. Social developmental risk factors proximally predicted increases in substance abuse and depressive symptoms. OXTR DNA methylation moderated the effects of contextual stressors on defensive/hostile relational schemas. Findings suggest that early exposures to stress carry forward to affect the development of social developmental risk factors in emerging adulthood, which place rural African American men at risk for increased substance abuse and depressive symptoms during the emerging adult years.

Self-Control and Crime: Beyond Gottfredson and Hirschi's Theory

Over the past several decades, Gottfredson & Hirschi's (1990) SCT has dominated research on self-control and crime. In this review, I assess the current state of self-control knowledge and encourage the field to move beyond SCT, as its peculiar conceptualization of self-control and causal model presents challenges for integrative scholarship. Drawing heavily on scholarship outside criminology, I clarify the definition of self-control; describe the malleable nature of trait self-control; highlight its situational variability as state self-control; and consider the multiplicity of contextual, situational, and individual factors that affect its operation in relation to crime. This specification of contingencies and the interplay between impulse strength and control efforts in the process of self-control is intended as a springboard for research moving beyond SCT and its key premise that self-control ability is sufficient for explanation. Finally, I address what I see as important areas for further study in light of current knowledge.

Building on the biocultural syntheses: 20 years and still expanding

Building a New Biocultural Synthesis: Political Economic Perspectives in Human Biology called for an integration of political economy with ecological and adaptability perspectives in biocultural anthropology. A major goal of this volume was to explore the utility of including political-economic and sociocultural processes in analyses of human biological variation, nutrition, and health. A second goal was to enhance collaboration among subfields and work against the "chasm" that separated complementary perspectives in cultural and biological anthropology. Twenty years hence, new ways to link social inequalities and human biology have emerged in part through contributions of developmental origins of health and disease, epigenetics, microbiomes, and other new methods for tracing pathways of embodiment. Equally important, notions of "local/situated biologies" and "reactive genomes," provide frameworks for understanding biology and health at the nexus of ecologies, societies, and histories. We review and highlight these contributions toward expanding critical approaches to human biology. Developments over the past two decades have reinforced the central role of social environments and structural inequalities in shaping human biology and health. Yet, within biocultural approaches, a significant engagement with historical, political-economic, and sociocultural conditions remains relatively rare. We review potential barriers to such analyses, focusing on theoretical and methodological challenges as well as the subfield structure of anthropology. Achieving politically and socially contextualized and relevant critical biocultural approaches remains a challenge, but there is reason for optimism amid new theoretical and methodological developments and innovations brought by new generations of scholars.

Genome-wide effects of social status on DNA methylation in the brain of a cichlid fish, Astatotilapia burtoni

BACKGROUND

Successful social behavior requires real-time integration of information about the environment, internal physiology, and past experience. The molecular substrates of this integration are poorly understood, but likely modulate neural plasticity and gene regulation. In the cichlid fish species Astatotilapia burtoni, male social status can shift rapidly depending on the environment, causing fast behavioral modifications and a cascade of changes in gene transcription, the brain, and the reproductive system. These changes can be permanent but are also reversible, implying the involvement of a robust but flexible mechanism that regulates plasticity based on internal and external conditions. One candidate mechanism is DNA methylation, which has been linked to social behavior in many species, including A. burtoni. But, the extent of its effects after A. burtoni social change were previously unknown.

RESULTS

We performed the first genome-wide search for DNA methylation patterns associated with social status in the brains of male A. burtoni, identifying hundreds of Differentially Methylated genomic Regions (DMRs) in dominant versus non-dominant fish. Most DMRs were inside genes supporting neural development, synapse function, and other processes relevant to neural plasticity, and DMRs could affect gene expression in multiple ways. DMR genes were more likely to be transcription factors, have a duplicate elsewhere in the genome, have an anti-sense lncRNA, and have more splice variants than other genes. Dozens of genes had multiple DMRs that were often seemingly positioned to regulate specific splice variants.

CONCLUSIONS

Our results revealed genome-wide effects of A. burtoni social status on DNA methylation in the brain and strongly suggest a role for methylation in modulating plasticity across multiple biological levels. They also suggest many novel hypotheses to address in mechanistic follow-up studies, and will be a rich resource for identifying the relationships between behavioral, neural, and transcriptional plasticity in the context of social status.

Childhood Adversity, Socioeconomic Instability, Oxytocin-Receptor-Gene Methylation, and Romantic-Relationship Support Among Young African American Men

Men's emerging adult romantic relationships forecast downstream relationship behavior, including commitment and quality. Accumulating evidence implicates methylation of the oxytocin-receptor-gene (OXTR) system in regulating relationship behavior. We tested hypotheses regarding the links between (a) childhood adversity and (b) socioeconomic instability in emerging adulthood on supportive romantic relationships via their associations with OXTR methylation. Hypotheses were tested using path analysis with data from 309 participants in the African American Men's Project. Consistent with our hypotheses, results showed that OXTR methylation proximally predicted changes in relationship support during a 1.5-year period. Childhood adversity was not directly associated with OXTR methylation but, rather, with contemporaneous socioeconomic instability, which in turn predicted elevated OXTR methylation. Findings suggest that early adversity is indirectly associated with OXTR methylation by links with downstream socioeconomic instability. Findings must be considered provisional, however, because preregistered replications are needed to establish more firmly the relations among these variables.

The Genome-Wide Study of Human Social Behavior and Its Application in Sociology

Recent years have seen a push for the integration of modern genomic methodologies with sociological inquiry. The inclusion of genomic approaches promises to help address long-standing issues in sociology (e.g., selection effects), as well as open up new avenues for future research. This article reviews the substantive findings of behavior genetic/genomic research, both from the recent past (e.g., twin/adoption studies, candidate gene studies) and from contemporary genomic analyses. The article primarily focuses on modern genomic methods available to sociologists (e.g., polygenic score analysis) and their various applications for answering sociological questions. The article concludes by considering a number of areas to which genomic researchers and sociologists should pay close attention if a consilience between genomic methods and sociological research is to be fully realized.

Markers as mediators: A review and synthesis of epigenetics literature

Epigenetics, the study of the processes that control gene expression without a change in DNA sequence, highlights the importance of environmental factors in gene regulation. This paper maps the terrain of epigenetics and identifies four main research subfields: gene expression; molecular epigenetics; clinical epigenetics and epigenetic epidemiology. Within and across these fields, we analyse of what is conceptualised as environment and demonstrate the variable ways authors understand epigenetics environments. Then, following an analysis of the discursive strategies employed by epigenetics researchers, we demonstrate how authors portray the interactions between genes, epigenetics, and environment as relationships linking the outside (where the environment is located) with the inside (where the genes are located). We argue that authors assign specific roles to each actor: the environment as the active player initiating the relationship, the genes as recipients, and epigenetics as mediators between environment and genes. Framed as mediators, epigenetic markers can be understood as enablers of communication between environment and genome, capable of processing and organising signals so as to regulate the interactions between the actors of epigenetic relationships. This finding complicates the observation by social science scholars that the interactions between environment and genes can be understood through the concept of signal.

Prevention of Early Substance Use Mediates, and Variation at SLC6A4 Moderates, SAAF Intervention Effects on OXTR Methylation

The Strong African American Family (SAAF) program has been shown to have a variety of short and long-term benefits for participating youth and families. However, biological mechanisms potentially influencing long-term effects on resilience in young adulthood have not been examined. In the current investigation, we examine the effects of SAAF on methylation of the OXTR gene in young adulthood, focusing on a regulatory region previously identified to be both responsive to stress and implicated in resilience. Using the subsample of participants from the original study for whom methylation data was available (N = 388), we replicated the previously reported G × E effect on prevention of early substance use and then examined whether there would also be a moderated effect on OXTR methylation in early adulthood, with "s" allele carriers, but not "LL" participants, showing a significant indirect effect of SAAF on OXTR methylation. Results suggest that for susceptible youth (i.e., "s" allele carriers), preventive intervention may "get under the skin," in a manner potentially beneficial for long-term outcomes. Implications for examination of OXTR methylation in future prevention research are discussed.

Transgenerational epigenetic influences of paternal environmental exposures on brain function and predisposition to psychiatric disorders

In recent years, striking new evidence has demonstrated non-genetic inheritance of acquired traits associated with parental environmental exposures. In particular, this transgenerational modulation of phenotypic traits is of direct relevance to psychiatric disorders, including depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and other anxiety disorders. Here we review the recent progress in this field, with an emphasis on acquired traits of psychiatric illnesses transmitted epigenetically via the male lineage. We discuss the transgenerational effects of paternal exposure to stress vs. positive stimuli, such as exercise, and discuss their impact on the behavioral, affective and cognitive characteristics of their progeny. Furthermore, we review the recent evidence suggesting that these transgenerational effects are mediated by epigenetic mechanisms, including changes in DNA methylation and small non-coding RNAs in the sperm. We discuss the urgent need for more research exploring transgenerational epigenetic effects in animal models and human populations. These future studies may identify epigenetic mechanisms as potential contributors to the 'missing heritability' observed in genome-wide association studies of psychiatric illnesses and other human disorders. This exciting new field of transgenerational epigenomics will facilitate the development of novel strategies to predict, prevent and treat negative epigenetic consequences on offspring health, and psychiatric disorders in particular.

Exploring adverse parent-child relationships from the perspective of convicted child murderers: A South African qualitative study

Child homicide is the most extreme form of violence against children. Within South Africa, children face the highest risk of homicide by parents/caregivers. It is suggested that prolonged exposure to adverse relationships with one’s own parents may be linked to committing child homicide as it may lead to psychological damage and disturb neurological functioning. This paper explores the adverse parent-child relationships of 22 men and women incarcerated for the murder of either a biological child, a stepchild or a child in their care and draws on 49 in-depth interviews with these participants. We illustrate that traumatic parent-child experiences in the form of absent parents, neglect and abuse have a profound impact on establishing unhealthy attachment styles and emphasize the importance of early adverse parent-child bonds in setting the tone for future bonds as adults. The pathway to adopting an adverse attachment with one’s own child is argued to be influenced by these early traumatic emotional experiences within the home. This study highlights the need to acknowledge the impact that adverse parent-child experiences have on the formation of violent forms of parental behavior. It is imperative to reduce children’s emotional vulnerabilities by implementing strategies to strengthen current parenting practices, to promote the development of less violent parent-child relationships and to work towards resolving parents’ experiences of trauma in reducing child homicide.

Where the rubber hits the road: Neuroscience and social work

Multidisciplinary scholarly dialogue can bring academics and researchers together and open up new areas of inquiry. This paper is a case study about how two scholars, one in social work and the other in science, have found common ground. It discusses their respective research projects and how 'the rubber hits the road' by exploring why the knowledge of science/neuroscience is important to non-science majors like social workers in their practice, using childhood trauma, to illustrate that. Finally, it makes recommendations regarding the inclusion of science education in social work curricula and offers some ideas for future research.

Three Approaches to Understanding and Classifying Mental Disorder: ICD-11, DSM-5, and the National Institute of Mental Health’s Research Domain Criteria (RDoC)

The diagnosis of mental disorder initially appears relatively straightforward: Patients present with symptoms or visible signs of illness; health professionals make diagnoses based primarily on these symptoms and signs; and they prescribe medication, psychotherapy, or both, accordingly. However, despite a dramatic expansion of knowledge about mental disorders during the past half century, understanding of their components and processes remains rudimentary. We provide histories and descriptions of three systems with different purposes relevant to understanding and classifying mental disorder. Two major diagnostic manuals—the International Classification of Diseases and the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders—provide classification systems relevant to public health, clinical diagnosis, service provision, and specific research applications, the former internationally and the latter primarily for the United States. In contrast, the National Institute of Mental Health’s Research Domain Criteria provides a framework that emphasizes integration of basic behavioral and neuroscience research to deepen the understanding of mental disorder. We identify four key issues that present challenges to understanding and classifying mental disorder: etiology, including the multiple causality of mental disorder; whether the relevant phenomena are discrete categories or dimensions; thresholds, which set the boundaries between disorder and nondisorder; and comorbidity, the fact that individuals with mental illness often meet diagnostic requirements for multiple conditions. We discuss how the three systems’ approaches to these key issues correspond or diverge as a result of their different histories, purposes, and constituencies. Although the systems have varying degrees of overlap and distinguishing features, they share the goal of reducing the burden of suffering due to mental disorder.

Biological determination of mental disorders: a discussion based on recent hypotheses from neuroscience

Understanding the processes involved in the development of mental disorders has proven challenging ever since psychiatry was founded as a field. Neuroscience has provided new expectations that an explanation will be found for the development of mental disorders based on biological functioning alone. However, such a goal has not been that easy to achieve, and new hypotheses have begun to appear in neuroscience research. In this article we identify epigenetics, neurodevelopment, and plasticity as the principal avenues for a new understanding of the biology of mental phenomena. Genetic complexity, the environment's formative role, and variations in vulnerability involve important changes in the principal hypotheses on biological determination of mental disorders, suggesting a reconfiguration of the limits between the "social" and the "biological" in neuroscience research.

Methylation of the oxytocin receptor gene mediates the effect of adversity on negative schemas and depression

Building upon various lines of research, we posited that methylation of the oxytocin receptor gene (OXTR) would mediate the effect of adult adversity on increased commitment to negative schemas and in turn the development of depression. We tested our model using structural equation modeling and longitudinal data from a sample of 100 middle-aged, African American women. The results provided strong support for the model. Analysis of the 12 CpG sites available for the promoter region of the OXTR gene identified four factors. One of these factors was related to the study variables, whereas the others were not. This factor mediated the effect of adult adversity on schemas relating to pessimism and distrust, and these schemas, in turn, mediated the impact of OXTR methylation on depression. All indirect effects were statistically significant, and they remained significant after controlling for childhood trauma, age, romantic relationship status, individual differences in cell types, and average level of genome-wide methylation. These finding suggest that epigenetic regulation of the oxytocin system may be a mechanism whereby the negative cognitions central to depression become biologically embedded.

The National Institute of Mental Health Research Domain Criteria: A Bridge Too Far

The National Institute of Mental Health is actively promoting Research Domain Criteria as a new model for the research on mental disorders. Research Domain Criteria approaches disorders through a matrix, linking units of analysis with domains, based on the assumption that psychopathology reflects abnormal connectivity in the brain. This review suggests that the Research Domain Criteria perspective is likely to fail to provide an adequate basis for clinical psychiatric theory and practice. First, it uses models from neuroscience that are insufficiently developed. Second, it is based on the premise that mental phenomena and mental disorders can be reduced to neural activity, without consideration of cognition, experience, and social interaction. Third, it downplays psychosocial factors in psychopathology and treatment. Research Domain Criteria may therefore prove inadequate for providing a neuroscientific basis for psychiatric nosology and treatment and needs to be supplemented with a broader view that incorporates insights from social sciences, psychology, and phenomenology.

The social neuroscience and the theory of integrative levels

The theory of integrative levels provides a general description of the evolution of matter through successive orders of complexity and integration. Along its development, material forms pass through different levels of organization, such as physical, chemical, biological or sociological. The appearance of novel structures and dynamics during this process of development of matter in complex systems has been called emergence. Social neuroscience (SN), an interdisciplinary field that aims to investigate the biological mechanisms that underlie social structures, processes, and behavior and the influences between social and biological levels of organization, has affirmed the necessity for including social context as an essential element to understand the human behavior. To do this, SN proposes a multilevel integrative approach by means of three principles: multiple determinism, nonadditive determinism and reciprocal determinism. These theoretical principles seem to share the basic tenets of the theory of integrative levels but, in this paper, we aim to reveal the differences among both doctrines. First, SN asserts that combination of neural and social variables can produce emergent phenomena that would not be predictable from a neuroscientific or social psychological analysis alone; SN also suggests that to achieve a complete understanding of social structures we should use an integrative analysis that encompasses levels of organization ranging from the genetic level to the social one; finally, SN establishes that there can be mutual influences between biological and social factors in determining behavior, accepting, therefore, a double influence, upward from biology to social level, and downward, from social level to biology. In contrast, following the theory of integrative levels, emergent phenomena are not produced by the combination of variables from two levels, but by the increment of complexity at one level. In addition, the social behavior and structures might be contemplated not as the result of mixing or summing social and biological influences, but as emergent phenomena that should be described with its own laws. Finally, following the integrative levels view, influences upward, from biology to social level, and downward, from social level to biology, might not be equivalent, since the bottom-up processes are emergent and the downward causation (DC) is not.

'Biologizing' Psychopathy: Ethical, Legal, and Research Implications at the Interface of Epigenetics and Chronic Antisocial Conduct

Epigenetics, a field that links genetics and environmental influences on the expression of phenotypic traits, offers to increase our understanding of the development and trajectory of disease and psychological disorders beyond that thought of traditional genetic research and behavioural measures. By extension, this new perspective has implications for risk and risk management of antisocial behaviour where there is a biological component, such as psychopathy. Psychopathy is a personality disorder associated with repeat displays of antisocial behaviour, and is associated with the disproportionate imposition of harm on communities. Despite advances in our knowledge of psychopathic individuals, the construct remains complex and is hampered by a lack of integration across a range of fundamental domains. The clinical and forensic research on psychopathy is brought into conversation with the emerging field of epigenetics to highlight critical issues of (1) clinical definition and diagnosis, (2) assessment, (3) aetiology of psychopathic phenotypes, and (4) treatment and rehabilitation approaches. Broader ethical and legal questions of the role of epigenetic mechanisms in the management of psychopathy beyond the criminal justice arena are also outlined.

Critical medical humanities: embracing entanglement, taking risks

What can the medical humanities achieve? This paper does not seek to define what is meant by the medical humanities, nor to adjudicate the exact disciplinary or interdisciplinary knowledges it should offer, but rather to consider what it might be capable of doing. Exploring the many valences of the word 'critical', we argue here for a critical medical humanities characterised by: (i) a widening of the sites and scales of 'the medical' beyond the primal scene of the clinical encounter; (ii) greater attention not simply to the context and experience of health and illness, but to their constitution at multiple levels; (iii) closer engagement with critical theory, queer and disability studies, activist politics and other allied fields; (iv) recognition that the arts, humanities and social sciences are best viewed not as in service or in opposition to the clinical and life sciences, but as productively entangled with a 'biomedical culture'; and, following on from this, (v) robust commitment to new forms of interdisciplinary and cross-sector collaboration. We go on to introduce the five other articles published in this special issue of the journal, reflecting on the ways in which collaboration and critique are articulated in their analyses of immunology, critical neuroscience, toxicity, global clinical labour, and psychological coercion and workfare. As these articles demonstrate, embracing the complex role of critical collaborator--one based on notions of entanglement, rather than servility or antagonism--will, we suggest, develop the imaginative and creative heterodox qualities and practices which have long been recognised as core strengths of the medical humanities.

How The Genome Got a Life Span

In the space of little more than a decade, ideas of the human genome have shifted significantly, with the emergence of the notion that the genome an individual changes with development, age, disease, environmental inputs, and time. This paper examines the emergence of the genome with a life span, one that experiences drift, instability and mutability, and a host of other temporal changes. We argue that developments in chromatin biology have provided the basis for this genomic embodiment of experience and exposure. We analyze how time has come to matter for the genome through chromatin, providing analysis of examples in which the human life course is being explored as a set of material changes to chromatin. A genome with a lifespan aligns the molecular and the experiential in new ways, shifting ideas of life stages, their interrelation, and the temporality of health and disease.

"Learning how to deal with feelings differently": Psychotropic medications as vehicles of socialization in adolescence

Drawing from ethnographic research among clinicians working with adolescents at a hospital psychiatric emergency department and outpatient clinic, and with interviews with adolescent psychiatric patients and their parents, we examine how psychiatric medicines function as socializing agents. Although psychiatric medications are thought to exert their main effects through direct biological action on neural circuitry, in fact, their use mobilizes specific kinds of moral discourse and social positioning that may have profound effects on sense of self, personhood, and psychological development. Specifically, our data reveal how clinical discourse around medications aims to enlist adolescents in becoming responsible, emotionally intelligent selves through learning to manage their medications. Among doctors, adolescents and their families, talk about psychiatric medications intertwines narratives of 'growing up' and 'getting well'. Our analysis of case studies from the clinic thus demonstrates that while psychiatric medications are explicitly designed to influence behavior by acting directly on the brain, they also act to structure adolescents' selves and social worlds through indirect, rather than direct causal pathways to the brain.

Superior pattern processing is the essence of the evolved human brain

Humans have long pondered the nature of their mind/brain and, particularly why its capacities for reasoning, communication and abstract thought are far superior to other species, including closely related anthropoids. This article considers superior pattern processing (SPP) as the fundamental basis of most, if not all, unique features of the human brain including intelligence, language, imagination, invention, and the belief in imaginary entities such as ghosts and gods. SPP involves the electrochemical, neuronal network-based, encoding, integration, and transfer to other individuals of perceived or mentally-fabricated patterns. During human evolution, pattern processing capabilities became increasingly sophisticated as the result of expansion of the cerebral cortex, particularly the prefrontal cortex and regions involved in processing of images. Specific patterns, real or imagined, are reinforced by emotional experiences, indoctrination and even psychedelic drugs. Impaired or dysregulated SPP is fundamental to cognitive and psychiatric disorders. A broader understanding of SPP mechanisms, and their roles in normal and abnormal function of the human brain, may enable the development of interventions that reduce irrational decisions and destructive behaviors.