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

Abstract

Objective: This study investigated the relation between genetic variations in the dopamine system and facial expression recognition. Methods: A sample of Chinese college students (n = 478) was given a facial expression recognition task. Subjects were genotyped for 98 loci [96 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and 2 variable number tandem repeats] in 16 genes involved in the dopamine neurotransmitter system, including its 4 subsystems: synthesis (TH, DDC, and DBH), degradation/transport (COMT,MAOA,MAOB, and SLC6A3), receptors (DRD1,DRD2,DRD3,DRD4, and DRD5), and modulation (NTS,NTSR1,NTSR2, and NLN). To quantify the total contributions of the dopamine system to emotion recognition, we used a series of multiple regression models. Permutation analyses were performed to assess the posterior probabilities of obtaining such results. Results: Among the 78 loci that were included in the final analyses (after excluding 12 SNPs that were in high linkage disequilibrium and 8 that were not in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium), 1 (for fear), 3 (for sadness), 5 (for anger), 13 (for surprise), and 15 (for disgust) loci exhibited main effects on the recognition of facial expressions. Genetic variations in the dopamine system accounted for 3% for fear, 6% for sadness, 7% for anger, 10% for surprise, and 18% for disgust, with the latter surviving a stringent permutation test. Conclusions: Genetic variations in the dopamine system (especially the dopamine synthesis and modulation subsystems) made significant contributions to individual differences in the recognition of disgust faces.

Improvement of facial affect recognition in children and adolescents with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder under methylphenidate

“…boys), but with disgust having the highest significance (p . 0.0000) (22). Looking at our two groups it can be seen that all three girls in the present study are found in Group 1, accounting here for even 1 of the 3 of the group's participants.…”

“…Moreover, the basic concept of the Theory of Mind is seen partly to lie in the dopaminergic pathway (28), with changes in this neurotransmitter system having a direct effect on the emotion recognition abilities (22). Lackner et al (28) demonstrated a direct correlation between the length of the DRD4-allele (of the dopamine receptor) and the Theory of Mind abilities.…”

The ANKK1/DRD2 locus is a genomic substrate for affective priming and recognition of angry faces

“…2009; Zhu et al. 2012). Both phenomena have been related to various disorders where affective processing plays a relevant role (e.g., Demenescu et al.…”

“…Affective priming has been extensively used to examine the automatic affective processing (Fazio 2001;Klauer and Musch 2003) and refers to the fact that the time needed to evaluate a target item is shorter when it is preceded by an affectively congruent prime than when it is preceded by an affectively incongruent prime. Recognition of facial expressions plays a key role in the communication of emotions, and is subjected to both environmental and genetic influences (Ekman 1993;Lau et al 2009;Zhu et al 2012). Both phenomena have been related to various disorders where affective processing plays a relevant role (e.g., Demenescu et al 2010;Hooker et al 2011;LeMoult et al 2012), suggesting that they could be endophenotypes underlying deviant phenotypes.…”

Genetic Variations in the Serotoninergic System Contribute to Body-Mass Index in Chinese Adolescents

“…As early as 1918, Fisher proposed this polygenic model that combined many genes of small effects to yield the continuous variation for most quantitative traits [45]. Recently, some studies have successfully applied the polygenic model by combining effects of the whole genome [46], [47], [48] or effects of genes within a pathway [49], [50], [51]. Since several serotonin-related genes exert their effect on BMI, it is likely that their effects are cumulative.…”