Neuroepigenetics in philosophical focus: A critical analysis of mechanisms

Epigenetics investigates the dynamics of gene expression in various cells, and the signals from the internal and external environment affecting these dynamics. Neuroepigenetics extends this research into neurons and glia cells. Environmental-induced changes in gene expression are not only associated with the emerging structure and function of the nervous system during ontogeny, but also fundamental to the wiring of neural circuitries responsible for learning and memory. Yet philosophers of science ad neuroscience have so far paid little attention to these findings. In this paper, we describe some recent experimental work on the neuroepigenetics of fear and stress responses in rodents, its ingenious experimental translation into humans, and how this work seems not to be accurately described by popular “mechanist” accounts. Our final goal is to motivate broader philosophical attention to neuroepigenetics practices and findings, especially for how it considers environmentally-driven and developmental plasticity in behavioral and psychological explanations.