Higher-order adaptive dynamical system modeling of the role of epigenetics in anxiety disorders

In this paper, a fifth-order adaptive self-modelling network model is introduced to describe epigenetic involvement in the development of anxiety disorders and its regulation by a possible epigenetics-based therapeutic method. Multiple orders of adaptivity are used in the model to depict the development process, where a higher pathway of any order of adaptivity adapts characteristics of pathways in lower orders and acts as a form of control. These orders of adaptivity and their interlevel interaction were modelled as a higher-order adaptive dynamical system according to the self-modelling network modelling principle. The model was inspired by the structure of the relevant human biological and neurological processes. In addition to modelling the development of an anxiety disorder, also the possibility of an epigenetics-based therapy is suggested and computationally analyzed in this paper.