Culture modulates sensitivity to the disappearance of facial expressions associated with serotonin transporter polymorphism (5-HTTLPR)

Abstract

The present research investigated an association between the serotonin transporter polymorphism (5-HTTLPR) and sensitivity to the disappearance of facial expressions cross-culturally and found, for the first time, that cultural norms and practices modulate the association. Participants watched both happy-to-neutral and sad-to-neutral movies and judged the point at which the emotional expressions disappeared. As predicted, the results showed that Japanese with the s/s genotype detected the disappearance of facial expressions (particularly the disappearance of smiles) with greater perceptual efficiency than did those with s/l and l/l genotypes, whereas such a tendency was not found in Americans. This suggests that people with the s/s genotype of 5-HTTLPR are more sensitive to environmental changes, but only when the change is culturally important, compared to people with the long allele. Moreover, Asian Americans' pattern was much more similar to European Americans than to Japanese, supporting the idea that the differences between cultural groups are indeed due to different cultural experiences.

Gene–culture interactions: a multi-gene approach

“…Indeed, the geneculture interaction framework has now been studied with several polymorphic sites and psychological outcomes (Ishii et al 2014b;Kim et al 2010a, b;Kitayama et al 2014). However, since the brain is an interactive system, G 9 C which consider multiple genetic influences will likely be important in the future.…”

“…Similarly, variation in the serotonin 1A receptor gene (5HTR1A) polymorphism rs6295 moderated a cultural difference in holistic attention (Kim et al 2010b). In addition, culture moderated the influence of serotonin transporter polymorphism (5-HTTLPR) on sensitivity to disappearance of facial expressions (Ishii et al 2014a). The Exon 3 variable number tandem repeat (VNTR) polymorphism of the D 4 receptor gene (DRD4) moderates cultural divergence on the overarching independence-interdependence social orientation (Kitayama et al 2014).…”

5‐HTTLPR moderates the association between interdependence and brain responses to mortality threats

“…While there has been increasing evidence for gene × culture interactions on human behavior and cognition [e.g., Kim et al, , Ishii et al, ; Kitayama et al, ], only a few brain imaging findings suggest gene × culture interactions on neural responses involved in cognition and emotion. By scanning participants from the same cultural group but with different cultural traits, Ma et al () reported distinct patterns of associations between interdependence and brain activities during self‐reflection in the two variants of the 5‐HTTLPR.…”

“…For example, collectivistic cultural values are more likely to be apparent in nations with more S allele carriers [Chiao and Blizinsky, ]. Among Japanese but not Americans, S/S vs L allele carriers (including S/L and L/L genotypes) performed better during detection of the disappearance of facial expressions [Ishii et al, ], suggesting 5‐HTTLPR × culture interaction on behavioral responses to emotional stimuli. Third, recent fMRI research suggests that the 5‐HTTLPR moderates the association between cultural traits and brain activities related to cognition/emotion.…”

Does uncertainty avoidance keep charity away? comparative research between charitable behavior and 79 national cultures

“…This is in line with growing body of research advocating one's psychological tendency may result from genetic and environmental interactions. More precisely these genotypes may be related to greater plasticity or environmental exposure (Belsky et al 2007(Belsky et al , 2009Obradovic and Boyce 2009;Way and Taylor 2010) which in turn "foster a more culturespecific way of behaving" (Ishii et al 2014).…”