Version 1
: Received: 2 August 2022 / Approved: 3 August 2022 / Online: 3 August 2022 (11:24:47 CEST)
How to cite:
Maximino, C. Serotonin as a Biocultural Molecule: Circular Causality, Stress, and Psychopathology. Preprints2022, 2022080089. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202208.0089.v1
Maximino, C. Serotonin as a Biocultural Molecule: Circular Causality, Stress, and Psychopathology. Preprints 2022, 2022080089. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202208.0089.v1
Maximino, C. Serotonin as a Biocultural Molecule: Circular Causality, Stress, and Psychopathology. Preprints2022, 2022080089. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202208.0089.v1
APA Style
Maximino, C. (2022). Serotonin as a Biocultural Molecule: Circular Causality, Stress, and Psychopathology. Preprints. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202208.0089.v1
Chicago/Turabian Style
Maximino, C. 2022 "Serotonin as a Biocultural Molecule: Circular Causality, Stress, and Psychopathology" Preprints. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202208.0089.v1
Abstract
Serotonin (5-HT) show important relations to stress, and this relationship is crucial to understanding the psychobiology of common mental disorders. Environmental stressors regulate phasic and tonic serotonin levels, which are related to valence and outcome probabilities. This regulation takes place at smaller timescales, but also at the level of gene expression regulation. Moreover, genes related to the synthesis, metabolism, and transport of 5-HT are also involved in this regulation. Genetic variations in these genes modulate how stressors can lead to mental distress, but stressors also modulate gene expression in a genotype-dependent manner. As a result, the relationship between psychosocial stress and the regulation of the expression of 5-HTergic genes is bidirectional. This suggests a “circular causality” in which gene variations control tonic and phasic 5-HT signals (“upward causality”), while configurations and functions of the entire organism determine which genes are up- or downregulated, or which gene products are actually relevant in each situation (“downward causality”). The highly important role of social factors in human psychopathology is highlighted, and factors such as attachment and socioeconomic status modulate how the circular vertical causality between genes, neurotransmitters, and behavior is organized, representing circular horizontal causality. These complex interrelationships also suggest that more refined epistemologies are needed to fully grasp the relationship between 5-HT and common mental disorders.
Keywords
Serotonin; Chemical imbalance theories of psychopathology; Circular causality; Biocultural psychopathology; Critical neuroscience
Subject
Social Sciences, Behavior Sciences
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
