Association of Genetic Variation in the Promoter Region of OXTR with Differences in Social Affective Neural Processing

O’Connell, Garret; Whalley, Heather; Mukherjee, Prerona; Stanfield, Andrew C.; Montag, Christian; Hall, Jérémy; Reuter, Martin

doi:10.4236/jbbs.2012.21007

Cited by 17 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 56 publications

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“…Does more oxytocin activation of the neocortex in the context of a rich social and sensory environment improve early perceptual skills? Newer gene association studies have identified sensory processing relationships with OXTR genotype in adults, including decoding speech in a noisy environment (Tops et al, 2011), sensitivity to infant cues (BakermansKranenburg and Van Ijzendoorn, 2008), and facial emotion processing (O'connell et al, 2012;Melchers et al, 2013). As described above, perception of 'animacy' was also recently associated with OXTR methylation status (Jack et al, 2012).…”

Section: Future Research Directionsmentioning

confidence: 98%

Developmental Perspectives on Oxytocin and Vasopressin

Hammock

2014

Neuropsychopharmacol

153

146

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The related neuropeptides oxytocin and vasopressin are involved in species-typical behavior, including social recognition behavior, maternal behavior, social bonding, communication, and aggression. A wealth of evidence from animal models demonstrates significant modulation of adult social behavior by both of these neuropeptides and their receptors. Over the last decade, there has been a flood of studies in humans also implicating a role for these neuropeptides in human social behavior. Despite popular assumptions that oxytocin is a molecule of social bonding in the infant brain, less mechanistic research emphasis has been placed on the potential role of these neuropeptides in the developmental emergence of the neural substrates of behavior. This review summarizes what is known and assumed about the developmental influence of these neuropeptides and outlines the important unanswered questions and testable hypotheses. There is tremendous translational need to understand the functions of these neuropeptides in mammalian experience-dependent development of the social brain. The activity of oxytocin and vasopressin during development should inform our understanding of individual, sex, and species differences in social behavior later in life.

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Section: Future Research Directionsmentioning

confidence: 98%

Developmental Perspectives on Oxytocin and Vasopressin

Hammock

2014

Neuropsychopharmacol

153

146

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“…For example: subjective responses to infant’s faces were moderated by the (rs53576G) allele of the OTR (Marsh et al, 2012); there is an association between several genetic variations in the OTR (rs53576, rs2254298, rs2228485) and performance on the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (RMET) (Lucht et al, 2012); and the OXTR (rs2268498) polymorphism modulated neural responses to emotional faces (O’Connell et al, 2012). Moreover, as evidence of the overlap between central dopaminergic and oxytocinergic systems, female OTR (rs4813625) carriers demonstrated greater stress-induced dopamine release, higher attachment and trait anxiety, and lower emotional well-being scores (Love et al, 2012).…”

Section: Neuropeptidergic Individuality: Genetic Variations In Otr Anmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sex, Receptors, and Attachment: A Review of Individual Factors Influencing Response to Oxytocin

MacDonald¹

2013

Front. Neurosci.

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As discussed in the larger review in this special issue (MacDonald and Feifel), intranasal oxytocin (OT) is demonstrating a growing potential as a therapeutic agent in psychiatry. Importantly, research suggests that a variety of individual factors may influence a person’s response to OT. In this mini-review, I provide a review of three: (1) sex and hormonal status; (2) genetic variation in aspects of the OT system (i.e., OT receptors); and (3) attachment history. Each of these factors will be important to monitor as we strive to develop a richer understanding of OT’s role in human development, brain-based disease, and the potential for individualized, OT-targeted treatments.

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“…Regarding variation in the oxytocin receptor gene ( OXTR ) gene, two polymorphisms are of particular interest: rs53576 has been associated with variance in empathic performance in healthy populations, and is implicated in the etiology of autism (Wu et al, 2005 ; Lerer et al, 2008 ). This polymorphism, as well as rs2268498, has also been shown to influence limbic responses to socio-emotional stimuli (Tost et al, 2010 ; O'Connell, 2012 ). The rs2268498 has been associated with emotion recognition accuracy (Melchers et al, 2013 ), and, in combination with the 5-HTTLPR, an insertion/deletion polymorphism in the promoter region of the serotonin transporter gene ( SLC6A4 ), it has shown a relationship to negative emotionality traits (Montag et al, 2011 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Variation in the oxytocin receptor gene is associated with behavioral and neural correlates of empathic accuracy

Laursen

Siebner

Haren

et al. 2014

Front. Behav. Neurosci.

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The neuromodulators oxytocin and serotonin have been implicated in regulating affective processes underlying empathy. Understanding this dependency, however, has been limited by a lack of objective metrics for measuring empathic performance. Here we employ a novel psychophysical method for measuring empathic performance that quantitatively measures the ability of subjects to decode the experience of another person's pain. In 50 female subjects, we acquired functional magnetic resonance imaging data as they were exposed to a target subject experiencing variable degrees of pain, whilst performing an irrelevant attention-demanding task. We investigated the effect of variation in the oxytocin receptor gene (OXTR) and the serotonin transporter gene (SLC6A4) on the psychophysical and neurometric variability associated with empathic performance. The OXTR rs2268498 and rs53576 polymorphisms, but not the SLC6A4 5-HTTLPR, were associated with significant differences in empathic accuracy, with CC- and AA-carriers, respectively, displaying higher empathic accuracy. For OXTR rs2268498 there was also a genotype difference in the correlation between empathic accuracy and activity in the superior temporal sulcus (STS). In OXTR rs2268498 CC-carriers, high empathic accuracy was associated with stronger responsiveness of the right STS to the observed pain. Together, the results show that genetic variation in the OXTR has significant influence on empathic accuracy and that this may be linked to variable responsivity of the STS.

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Association of Genetic Variation in the Promoter Region of OXTR with Differences in Social Affective Neural Processing

Cited by 17 publications

References 56 publications

Developmental Perspectives on Oxytocin and Vasopressin

Developmental Perspectives on Oxytocin and Vasopressin

Sex, Receptors, and Attachment: A Review of Individual Factors Influencing Response to Oxytocin

Variation in the oxytocin receptor gene is associated with behavioral and neural correlates of empathic accuracy

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