Corticolimbic Circuitry and Genomic Risk for Stress-Related Psychopathology

Susceptibility to stress-related psychopathology may be partially attributable to genetically conferred differences in corticolimbic circuitry that govern stress response and recovery. In this chapter, we survey emerging research suggesting that genetic variation associated with neuroimaging-derived corticolimbic phenotypes may confer risk to stress-related psychopathology. We briefly review evidence linking stress-related psychopathology to epigenetic alterations in corticolimbic circuitry and the transcriptomic response to stress. The mechanistic insights emerging from imaging genetics research promise to shed light on how genomic differences and the environment transmit vulnerability to stress-related psychopathology. Going forward, it will be important to develop larger genome-wide association studies (GWASs) of corticolimbic circuitry and related phenotypes while also probing molecular mechanisms through which the environment (e.g., epigenetic and stress-related transcription) may interact with polygenic architecture to confer vulnerability to stress-related psychopathology.