Epigenetic modification of gene expression remains active beyond the initial phases of development in which these modifications are most well-characterized. In fact, changes in gene expression via epigenetic modification have been shown to mediate the relationship between environmental stimuli and physiologic—and pathophysiologic—change throughout the life course.[16] In this way, epigenetics may unite neurobiology and population health around understanding how exposure to social, environmental, and contextual traumas may modify physiologic function to produce psychiatric disease in populations.
