Perspectives for Adaptive Dynamical Systems Analysis of the Interplay of Environment, Epigenetics, and Self-Regulation in the Development of Mental Disorders

The past two decades have seen an explosion of interest and research on dynamic factors, in particular at the biological unit of analysis, epigenetic mechanisms as key elements for understanding the role of environmental factors in mental disorders. At the psychological unit of analysis, this dynamism often can be seen as involving breakdowns or variation in various kinds of self-regulation. A complex adaptive dynamical systems perspective is a useful framework for analyzing the processes involved in an integrative manner. Here, in a computational application of dynamical systems modelling, a pathway of five levels (units) of adaptive control was proposed conceptually in the opening chapters and then computationally was distinguished in a biologically motivated manner and used to obtain a multilevel adaptive dynamical system architecture for how environmental factors via epigenetic changes can lead to reduced self-regulation of different types. The volume thus exemplifies putting new conceptual thinking into computational instantiation for evaluation. The approach was illustrated in this volume for a wide variety of mental health conditions such as anxiety, depression, autism, burnout, ADHD, obsessive-compulsive disorder, antisocial personality disorder, psychopathy, and more, and suggested a helpful degree of success for the conceptual model and its computational implementation as represented herein. In the current chapter, we take stock of where we are and of further challenges for the road ahead.