Behavioral epigenetics is the field of study examining the role of epigenetics in shaping animal and humanbehavior.[1] It seeks to explain how nurture shapes nature,[2] where nature refers to biological heredity[3] and nurture refers to virtually everything that occurs during the life-span (e.g., social-experience, diet and nutrition, and exposure to toxins).[4] Behavioral epigenetics attempts to provide a framework for understanding how the expression of genes is influenced by experiences and the environment[5] to produce individual differences in behaviour,[6]cognition,[2]personality,[7] and mental health.[8][9]
Epigenetic gene regulation involves changes other than to the sequence of DNA and includes changes to histones (proteins around which DNA is wrapped) and DNA methylation.[10][4][11] These epigenetic changes can influence the growth of neurons in the developing brain[12] as well as modify the activity of neurons in the adult brain.[13][14] Together, these epigenetic changes in neuron structure and function can have a marked influence on an organism's behavior.[1]
^ abCite error: The named reference Miller_2010 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^Kail RV, Barnfield A (2011). Children and Their Development, Second Canadian Edition with MyDevelopmentLab. Toronto: Pearson Education Canada. ISBN978-0-13-255770-2.
^ abMoore DS (2015). The Developing Genome: An Introduction to Behavioral Epigenetics (1st ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN978-0-19-992234-5.
^Champagne FA, Mashoodh R (2012). "Genes in context: Gene-environment interplay and the origins of individual differences in behaviour". Current Directions in Psychological Science. 18 (3): 127–131. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8721.2009.01622.x. S2CID18672157.
^Bagot RC, Meaney MJ (Aug 2010). "Epigenetics and the biological basis of gene x environment interactions". Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. 49 (8): 752–71. doi:10.1016/j.jaac.2010.06.001. PMID20643310.