Journal
ANNUAL REVIEW OF PSYCHOLOGY
Volume 61, Issue -, Pages 439-466Publisher
ANNUAL REVIEWS
DOI: 10.1146/annurev.psych.60.110707.163625
Keywords
maternal care; stress responses; DNA methylation; gene x environment interactions; glucocorticoid receptor
Categories
Funding
- National Institutes of Health
- Canadian Institutes for Health Research
- Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
- Human Frontiers Science Program
- National Alliance for Research in Schizophrenia and Affective Disorders
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There are numerous examples in psychology and other disciplines of the enduring effects of early experience on neural function. In this article, we review the emerging evidence for epigenetics as a candidate mechanism for these effects. Epigenetics refers to functionally relevant modifications to the genome that do not involve a change in nucleotide sequence. Such modifications include chemical marks that regulate the transcription of the genome. There is now evidence that environmental events can directly modify the epigenetic state of the genome. Thus studies with rodent models suggest that during both early development and in adult life, environmental signals can activate intracellular pathways that directly remodel the epigenome, leading to changes in gene expression and neural function. These studies define a biological basis for the interplay between environmental signals and the genome in the regulation of individual differences in behavior, cognition, and physiology.
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