COMT Val158Met polymorphism influences the susceptibility to framing in decision‐making: OFC‐amygdala functional connectivity as a mediator

Abstract

Individuals tend to avoid risk in a gain frame, in which options are presented in a positive way, but seek risk in a loss frame, in which the same options are presented negatively. Previous studies suggest that emotional responses play a critical role in this "framing effect." Given that the Met allele of COMT Val158Met polymorphism (rs4680) is associated with the negativity bias during emotional processing, this study investigated whether this polymorphism is associated with individual susceptibility to framing and which brain areas mediate this gene-behavior association. Participants were genotyped, scanned in resting state, and completed a monetary gambling task with options (sure vs risky) presented as potential gains or losses. The Met allele carriers showed a greater framing effect than the Val/Val homozygotes as the former gambled more than the latter in the loss frame. Moreover, the gene-behavior association was mediated by resting-state functional connectivity (RSFC) between orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) and bilateral amygdala. Met allele carriers showed decreased RSFC, thereby demonstrating higher susceptibility to framing than Val allele carriers. These findings demonstrate the involvement of COMT Val158Met polymorphism in the framing effect in decision-making and suggest RSFC between OFC and amygdala as a neural mediator underlying this gene-behavior association. Hum Brain Mapp 37:1880-1892, 2016. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

The influence of COMT rs4680 on functional connectivity in healthy adults: A systematic review

“…In considering these results, it should be noted that these two studies did not control for the potential confound of cycling oestrogen levels in their female-only samples. Gao et al (2016) focussed on positive functional connectivity using seed regions in the orbitofrontal cortex, dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, ventromedial PFC and bilateral amygdala in a sample of 98. These regions were chosen due to a previously demonstrated role in the framing effect (De Martino, Kumaran, Seymour, & Dolan, 2006), and may be involved in a negative-emotion-processing bias previously associated with the Met allele (Williams et al, 2010).…”

Controlling the Anchoring Effect through Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) to the Right Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex

“…The inconsistency between our study and that of Tamir and Mitchell (2010) can be explained because they used an experimental framework of social interaction involving mentalizing, the process in which participants inferred the mental states (e.g., thoughts or feelings) of others (Dufwenberg et al, 2011). Some studies have emphasized the role of increased activation of dorsomedial PFC (DMPFC) in the mentalizing processes (Tamir and Mitchell, 2010; Macoveanu et al, 2016).…”

Interaction of Catechol‐O‐methyltransferase Val158Met polymorphism and sex influences association of parietal intrinsic functional connectivity and immediate verbal memory

“…Significant increased FC in male MM/MV carriers relative to male VV carriers and female MM/MV carriers was found in left IPL. (Favaro, Clementi, & Manara, 2013), or decision making (Gao, Gong, & Liu, 2016). Yet, each of these resting-state functional networks is not independent of each other and do not link to a single specific cognitive process, thus making it complicated to interpret the findings (Simon-Vermot, Taylor, & Araque Caballero, 2018;Smith et al, 2009;Suri, Topiwala, & Filippini, 2017).…”