Association of DRD4 and COMT Polymorphisms with Disgust Sensitivity in Healthy Volunteers

Abstract

Background: Disgust is a basic emotion that involves feelings of revulsion and withdrawal behavior from dangerous/infectious situations. Very little is known about the genetic basis of disgust sensitivity. The dopamine receptor D4 (DRD4) and catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) genes have been implicated in neuroticism-related traits and approach-related temperaments which are supposed to be associated with disgust sensitivity. The present study aimed to investigate the possible relationship between disgust sensitivity and COMT Val158Met and DRD4 variable number of tandem repeats (VNTR) polymorphisms in healthy subjects. Methods: In total, 241 healthy Korean college students were recruited, and the 228 participants with a complete data set (127 males and 101 females) were included in the data analysis. Disgust sensitivity was assessed using the Disgust Scale-Revised (DS-R) and genotyping of COMT Val158Met and DRD4 VNTR polymorphisms was performed. Results:The Val/Val groups of COMT had significantly higher scores than the non-Val/Val group for the Animal-Reminder and the Contamination-Based Disgust scores as well as for total DS-R scores. Additionally, the non-2-repeat allele group of DRD4 had a tendency to a significantly higher disgust sensitivity than the 2-repeat allele group for Contamination-Based Disgust. Conclusions: These findings suggest that disgust sensitivity may be affected by genetic components, such as dopamine-related genes.

Genetic Influence of COMT and BDNF Gene Polymorphisms on Resilience in Healthy College Students

“…The Met allele reflecting higher cognitive functions in several domains might affect the cognitive aspect of resilience such as cognitive flexibility, which warrants further attention. In addition, in line with the present findings, substantial evidence has shown that the Met allele of the COMT has been implicated in low anxiety-related traits [14,18,38,39]. Because the low-activity Met allele of the COMT Val158Met polymorphism is associated with high availability of dopamine and norepinephrine [15], our findings indicate that high resilience functioning may be associated with a high catecholamine status.…”

Genetic Variations in the Dopamine System and Facial Expression Recognition in Healthy Chinese College Students

“…In terms of specific genes and emotion recognition, one previous study reported a weak association of DRD4 polymorphisms with disgust sensitivity [13] . In our examination of relevant DRD4 polymorphisms, we did not find any main effects of DRD4 loci on the recognition of disgust faces.…”

“…Psychopharmacological studies also showed that levodopa administration led to decreased amygdalar activation during the processing of emotional faces in both healthy subjects and PD patients [12] . Most relevantly, researchers found that disgust sensitivity (measured by a questionnaire) was associated with the DRD4 and COMT polymorphisms in healthy subjects [13] . In sum, evidence from clinical reports and experimental studies suggests that DA may play a role in emotion recognition processes [14] .…”

Selective effects of excessive engagement in health-related behaviours on disgust propensity

“…Although much remains unknown about the development of disgust propensity, pathogen pressures may have led to the selection of disgust propensity in individuals that is universal and plastic to local environmental variation (Curtis et al, 2011). There is some evidence suggesting that individual differences in disgust propensity may have modest genetic influences (Kang, Kim, Namkoong, & An, 2010). However, research examining parent-child disgust associations have also reported generally stronger correlations (Davey, Forster, & Mayhew, 1993;Rozin, Fallon, & Mandell, 1984), suggesting that disgust propensity may be acquired via social transmission and modelling of pathogen concerns during childhood (Rozin, Haidt, & McCauley, 2008;Stevenson, Oaten, Case, Repacholi, & Wagland, 2010).…”