methylation emerges in the first week of life and persists into adulthood. As a result, adult offspring of low-nurturing mothers have reduced hippocampal GR expression, which contributes to the behavioural deficits that these animals exhibit and pass on to their offspring. The finding that there are epigenetic changes that underlie life-long differences in behaviour suggests that drugs that influence DNA methylation and related epigenetic mechanisms might promote resilience in humans.
