Beyond genotype: Neuroimaging epigenetics of threat and reward circuitry in humans to understand risk for psychopathology

The overarching question of this PhD project is: How do early life experience, genes, brain activity, and behaviour relate to one another? To address this question, the proposed PhD project will use a neuroimaging epigenetic approach to go beyond the genome and examine the role of epigenetic modifications in the association between genetic markers and variability in brain activity that are associated with individual differences in behaviour and risk for psychopathology. As such, it has recently been proposed that the neuroimaging epigenetic approach is the logical next step in neuroimaging genetics 4. This PhD project will use data collected from a large F7 multisite European study focussing on male and female youths aged 9-18 years (www.femnat-cd.eu). Specifically, for the first time the association between childhood maltreatment, DNA methylation, fMRI BOLD response/connectivity, and measures of externalising and internalising disorders will be examined in youths. Patterns of DNA methylation are currently being obtained from blood for a number of genes implicated in the brain's threat and reward circuitries. The fMRI analyses will focus on a network of cortical and subcortical brain regions central to threat and reward processing and with dense serotonin, dopamine or oxytocin receptors and transporters. By systematically examining the association between childhood maltreatment, DNA methylation, and brain function/connectivity, it is hoped that this project will further our understanding of the molecular mechanisms of risk for psychopathology.