Integrating regenerative biology with developmental psychobiology to understand behavioral recovery

Abstract

Developmental psychobiology (DPB) is a sub-discipline of developmental biology investigating the roles of physiology, biomechanics, and the environment on behavioral development. Regenerative biology is also a sub-discipline of developmental biology, studying how tissues and organs heal and regenerate after injury. One aspect of healing and regeneration is the behavioral recovery of the whole organism, involving the nervous system and coordinated movements in three-dimensional space. Behavioral recovery is often a secondary measure in many regeneration studies, primarily focusing on molecular and cellular mechanisms involved in structural recovery. Studies and frameworks in DPB, however, suggest that behaviors may have an active role in the regeneration process, and integrating regenerative biology with DPB would provide a basis for behavioral research on regenerative systems as a separate biological question to increase our understanding of behavioral recovery. Here, I introduce the probabilistic epigenesis framework from DPB and elaborate on how it reveals gaps in our knowledge concerning regeneration and behavioral recovery. I close with an initial regenerative history framework to guide regenerative biologists and bioengineers studying behavioral recovery to address these gaps and optimize behavioral recovery with regenerating tissue.