Editorial: At Risk for Neuropsychiatric Disorders: An Affective Neuroscience Approach to Understanding the Spectrum

Neuropsychiatric disorders constitute a large global burden of disease; yet the neural mechanisms of emotional and social cognitive disturbances in patients are not yet fully understood (Deco and Kringelbach, 2014). Here, we used an affective neuroscience approach to investigate the spectrum of neuropsychiatric disorders from patients to those at risk, where stress plays a major role (Sousa, 2016). This Research Topic illuminates work by leading affective neuroscience researchers on how best to understand problems with the affective processing leading to increased risk for neuropsychiatric disorders. The 20 articles in the Research Topic can roughly be divided into five sections: 1. Overviews, 2. Methods, 3. Anxiety and Personality, 4. Social Cognition, and 5. Impulsivity/Compulsivity, although many papers will fit in multiple categories. In the following we briefly introduce each article in this context.