The Oxytocin Receptor Gene (OXTR) and Face Recognition

Abstract

Individual differences in face recognition have been linked to a single-nucleotide polymorphism (rs237887) of OXTR, the gene that encodes the oxytocin receptor (Skuse et al., 2014). In that study, participants were assessed by Warrington's test of FaceRecognition, but performance on Warrington's test has been shown not to rely purely on face recognition processes. We administered the widely used Cambridge Face MemoryTest-a purer test of face recognition-to 370 participants. Performance was not significantly associated with rs237887, or with 16 other SNPs of OXTR that we genotyped, or with a further 75 imputed SNPs. We also administered three other tests of face processing (Mooney Face Test, Glasgow Face Matching Test, and Composite Face Test), but performance was never significantly associated with rs237887, or with any of the other genotyped or imputed SNPs, after corrections for multiple testing.Additionally, we found no associations between OXTR and autism-spectrum quotient (AQ).

Oxytocin receptor gene variants are associated with emotion recognition and resilience, but not with false‐belief reasoning performance in healthy young Korean volunteers

“…To date, research on the associations of rs237887 and/or rs2268490 with social cognition and behavior has yielded mixed results. While the A allele of rs237887 is reportedly associated with increased risk for impaired facial recognition memory 28 (but see also 29 ) and autism spectrum disorder, 8 it has also been linked to better perspective taking. 30 Regarding rs2268490, the C allele was found to be associated with prosocial behavior in one study, 31 while another study found that it was associated with the callous-unemotional trait.…”

Neurobiological Aspects of Face Recognition: The Role of Oxytocin

“…Thus, it is not surprising that a common SNP in the OXTR (rs237887) was found to be associated with the parameters of face recognition memory in 198 European families with at least one child with an ASD diagnosis (Skuse et al, 2014). However, this study used the Warrington recognition memory test for faces, and these findings were not replicated in an additional study with 370 participants that used alternative protocols (Verhallen et al, 2017), specifically, the Cambridge face memory test, Mooney face test, Glasgow face matching test, and the Composite face test. Another SNP in the OXTR (rs7632287) was found to be associated with the ability to recognize faces.…”

“…There is evidence of an association between prosopagnosia and the common genetic variants rs53576, rs2254298, and rs237887 in the OXTR gene (Skuse et al, 2014; Cattaneo et al, 2016), although recent findings contradict these reports (Verhallen et al, 2017). Methodology is an important consideration because OT may only affect the temporal element of face recognition, and not accuracy or eye-gaze patterns (Hubble et al, 2017).…”

Genetics and epigenetics of autism: A Review

“…Evidence combining perceptual tests and OXTR: A study linked individual differences in face recognition to an SNP of the OXTR gene (rs237887) using data from 198 families from the United Kingdom and Finland in which a single child had been diagnosed with high‐functioning autism . However, a later study using three other face‐processing tests failed to find an association between OXTR polymorphisms (rs237887 and 16 other SNP of OXTR, or with another imputed 75 SNP) and Autism‐Spectrum Quotient scores on subsets of a cohort of 1060 participants who had previously participated in the PERceptual GENetics In Cambridge (PERGENIC) project Evidence from two additional variants of OXTR: Two additional variants – rs237889 and rs237897 (besides the 16 SNP that have been implicated in the cause of ASD) – have been studied in 135 parent–offspring trios and 29 parent–child duos.…”