Exposure to early adversity increases the risk for non-transmittable diseases, but also psychiatric conditions, and these common developmental risk factors suggest overlapping underlying mechanisms. The dopamine neurons constitute a system underlying the brain response to environmental conditions and functional variations of this system may be linked to long-term unfavorable outcomes in response to early adversity. We created an expression-based polygenic score for the dopamine transporter gene network (ePRS-DAT1) on the prefrontal cortex and striatum, to explore the role of dopamine on the long-term effects of early life adversity on these outcomes. The ePRS-DAT1 reflects genes co-expressed with DAT1 gene in the PFC and STR in a combined manner, being calculated using the effect size of the association between the individual SNPs from those genes and gene expression (GTEx). Using large datasets (UKBiobank for adulthood and ALSPAC for childhood/adolescence), we demonstrate that the ePRS-DAT1 moderates the impact of early life adversity on the risk for both psychiatric and cardiometabolic comorbidities in adults and adolescents. Brain gray matter densities in the insula and prefrontal cortex were significantly associated with SNPs from the ePRS suggesting these regions as critical dopaminergic targets for psychiatric/metabolic comorbidities. These results reveal that psychiatric and metabolic comorbidities showed share common developmental pathways and underlying biological mechanisms.

A mesocorticolimbic dopamine gene network moderates the effect of early adversity on the risk for metabolic and psychiatric comorbidities

Individual differences in dopamine gene and brain systems influence the responsiveness to environmental variations and affect different types of behaviors (sensitivity to reward, decision-making, eating) over the life course. Robust evidence points to DRD4 gene but neither the characterization of context diversity and dynamics, nor the neurobiological mechanisms involved in metabolic disorders and their co-morbidity with psychiatric conditions (e.g. obesity and ADHD) are understood in sufficient depth. Evidence advancing the theoretical understanding of environmental variation characterization over the life course will first be presented. Second, studies focusing on different genomic approaches to explore the impact of variations of dopamine related genes on the brain responses to both adverse and protective environmental conditions. A recent published study that explored differential susceptibility to positive environments according to the predicted genetically-regulated gene expression of prefrontal cortex DRD4 gene will be presented, evidencing the role of positive environment as a protective factor against the development of eating disorders in children as young as 48 and 60 months of age. To be able to further investigate the role of dopamine on these gene by environment interactions, we will present new data exploring the role of the dopamine transporter gene network through a polygenic approach that reflects variation on the genes co-expressed with DAT1 gene in the PFC and STR in a combined manner. A higher chance of having co-morbidity between mental and cardio-metabolic disorders on the UKBiobank cohort was associated with the interaction between variations in the DAT1 gene network and exposure to early life adversity, confirming our initial hypothesis. Taken together these findings highlight the relevance of a dopamine-related gene network to influence the risk to develop psychiatric conditions associated with exposure to early life adversity. Combining this novel approach to developmental neuropsychology with a more theoretically rich characterization of environmental variation over the life course can guide the elaboration of more efficacious and cost-effective personalized prevention and treatment of complex metabolic and mental health and diseases, targeting individuals that would benefit the most from interventions.

The role of dopamine on the link between early life environment and lifecourse eating behavior and co-morbidity between metabolic and psychiatric disorders: Context characterization and biologically-informed genomic approaches

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PS-1-A -  Development

poster

Colleagues and Friends:

I am very happy to welcome you to the 14th annual Canadian Neuroscience Meeting, and to the first virtual edition of our meeting. I want to highlight the important work the CAN meeting chair, **Roger Thompson** and co-chair, **Alyson Fournier**, did to put together the great program we are offering this year. Moving to a virtual format required a complete re-design of the program, and both Roger and Alyson did a splendid job in providing us with an appealing and well adapted program for our first virtual event. I wish to thank them for this very important effort.

Highlights of this year’s scientific meeting include invited speakers **Michael Hausser, Franck Polleux, Gwyneth Card, Magdalena Götz**and Brain Prize winner **Huda Zoghbi**. Plenary and parallel symposia, proposed by our members complete our diverse [scientific program.](https://can-acn.org/meeting-2021/program-2021/)

The 2021 Advocacy session, chaired and organized by CAN advocacy committee chair **Karun Singh**, will feature a special lecture and question period with Member of Parliament and past Science Minister **Kirsty Duncan**. This will be followed by a short overview of CAN’s advocacy activities over the last year. We invite you to participate in this session for insight from Dr. Duncan on the workings of Parliament Hill, and to learn more about what CAN has been doing to promote neuroscience research in Canada.

We are also excited to host **Lisa Willis** in the Equity Diversity and Inclusion session, organized by EDI committee chair **Jibran Khokhar**.

A special highlight of our meeting will be the lectures by award-winning young neuroscientists. We are please to host the CAN 2020 Young Investigator Award winner **Mihaela Iordanova**, and CAN 2021 Young Investigator Award winners **Aaron Phillips** and **Tabrez Siddiqui**. Highlights will also include presentation by the top three winners of the CAN-CIHR-INMHA Brain Star Award winners, **Claire Gizowski, Nuria Daviu Abant** and **Lukas Tamayo-Orrego**.

Independently organized satellite symposia complement and complete this exciting program, check them out here: https://can-acn.org/meeting-2021/2021-satellite-symposia/

Some of the most engaging sessions are always the poster sessions featuring the work of our trainees, so make sure to log in to Gather Town during the poster sessions to chat with the presenters.
We hope you enjoy this program, and look forward to welcoming you, virtually.

Shernaz Bamji

President of the Canadian Association for Neuroscience

![](https://assets.underline.io/uploads/markdown_image/1/image/b9aea25343a87d5aac3b9367dc780974.jpg)



Please head to https://can-acn.org/meeting-2021/registration-2021/ to register. 

CAN-ACN 2021

14th Canadian Neuroscience Meeting from August 23rd-25th

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**Chair:** Laurette Dube, McGill University

**Speakers:** Robert Levitan, CAMH; Susan Carnell, John Hopkins Medical Institute; Cecilia Flores, McGill University;  Patricia Silveira, McGill University

**Description:**

Chaired by L. Dube, this symposium examines multiscale brain-to-society mechanisms modulating the effect of dopamine on responsiveness to environmental variations over the lifecourse. R.Levitan will discuss the possible evolutionary and clinical significance of linkages between the 7R allele on the DRD4 gene and increased environmental sensitivity in adults with seasonal affective disorder and bulimia nervosa, as well as in young children's response to maternal sensitivity. S. Carnell will report neuroimaging results in adolescents, tracing structure and function of obesity-relevant circuits underlying dopamine-mediated food and non-food behaviors, while addressing genetic and environmental modulations. C. Flores will report animal research on developmental aspects of the dopaminergic system, discussing the role of axonal guidance cues on stress adaptation and its long-term effects in adolescence. B. Barth and L. Dube will present research advancing both the characterization of adverse and protective environmental variations over the lifecourse, and genomic methods to explore their interaction with dopamine-related genes on the brain responses. 

![](https://assets.underline.io/uploads/markdown_image/1/image/96979011996c23ad1ce2775f3aa31c38.png)

Parallel symposium 5: Dopamine and the response to environmental variation over the lifecourse: Clinical, neuroimaging, genomic and context characterization studies

Barbara Barth

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A mesocorticolimbic dopamine gene network moderates the effect of early adversity on the risk for metabolic and psychiatric comorbidities

The role of dopamine on the link between early life environment and lifecourse eating behavior and co-morbidity between metabolic and psychiatric disorders: Context characterization and biologically-informed genomic approaches

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