Towards understanding and halting legacies of trauma.

Abstract

Echoes of natural and anthropogenic stressors not only reverberate within the physiology, biology, and neurobiology of the generation directly exposed to them but also within the biology of future generations. With the intent of understanding this phenomenon, significant efforts have sought to establish how exposure to psychosocial stress, chemicals, over- and under-nutrition, and chemosensory experiences exert multi-generational influences. From these studies, we are gaining new appreciation for how negative environmental events experienced by one generation impact future generations. This review first outlines the need to operationally define dimensions of negative environmental events in the laboratory and the routes via which the impact of such events are felt through generations. Next, it discusses molecular processes that cause the effects of negative environmental events to be initiated in the exposed generation and then perpetuated across generations. Finally, we discuss how legacies of flourishing can be engineered to halt or reverse multi-generational influences of negative environmental events. In summary, this review synthesizes our current understanding of the concept, causes and consequences of multi-generational echoes of stress and looks to opportunities to halt them.