Genetic modulation of the response bias towards facial displays of anger and happiness

B Gohier; C Senior; J Radua; W El-Hage; A Reichenberg; P Proitsi; M L Phillips; S A Surguladze

doi:10.1016/j.eurpsy.2013.03.003

Genetic modulation of the response bias towards facial displays of anger and happiness

Eur Psychiatry. 2014 May;29(4):197-202. doi: 10.1016/j.eurpsy.2013.03.003. Epub 2013 Jun 13.

Authors

B Gohier¹, C Senior², J Radua³, W El-Hage⁴, A Reichenberg⁵, P Proitsi⁵, M L Phillips⁶, S A Surguladze⁷

Affiliations

¹ Université d'Angers, CHU Angers, Département de Psychiatrie, Angers, France; Laboratoire de Psychologie des Pays de la Loire, EA 4638, Université d'Angers, Angers, France. Electronic address: begohier@chu-angers.fr.
² School of Life and Health Sciences, Aston University, Aston Triangle, Birmingham, UK.
³ Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, London, UK; FIDMAG, CIBERSAM, Sant Boi de Llobregat, Spain.
⁴ Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, London, UK; Inserm U930, Université François Rabelais, CHRU de Tours, Tours, France.
⁵ Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, London, UK.
⁶ Department of Psychiatry, Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, PA, USA; Department of Psychological Medicine, Cardiff University School of Medicine, Cardiff, UK.
⁷ Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, London, UK; Cygnet Health Care, London, UK.

PMID: 23769682
DOI: 10.1016/j.eurpsy.2013.03.003

Abstract

Background: Investigating genetic modulation of emotion processing may contribute to the understanding of heritable mechanisms of emotional disorders. The aim of the present study was to test the effects of catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) val158met and serotonin-transporter-linked promoter region (5-HTTLPR) polymorphisms on facial emotion processing in healthy individuals.

Methods: Two hundred and seventy five (167 female) participants were asked to complete a computerized facial affect recognition task, which involved four experimental conditions, each containing one type of emotional face (fearful, angry, sad or happy) intermixed with neutral faces. Participants were asked to indicate whether the face displayed an emotion or was neutral. The COMT-val158met and 5-HTTLPR polymorphisms were genotyped.

Results: Met homozygotes (COMT) showed a stronger bias to perceive neutral faces as expressions of anger, compared with val homozygotes. However, the S-homozygotes (5-HTTLPR) showed a reduced bias to perceive neutral faces as expressions of happiness, compared to L-homozygotes. No interaction between 5-HTTLPR and COMT was found.

Conclusions: These results add to the knowledge of individual differences in social cognition that are modulated via serotonergic and dopaminergic systems. This potentially could contribute to the understanding of the mechanisms of susceptibility to emotional disorders.

Keywords: 5-HTTLPR; COMT; Emotional disorders; Facial emotion recognition; Genes.

MeSH terms

Adult
Affective Symptoms / genetics
Anger*
Catechol O-Methyltransferase / genetics*
Emotional Intelligence / genetics*
Facial Expression*
Female
Genetic Predisposition to Disease / genetics
Genotyping Techniques
Happiness*
Homozygote
Humans
Male
Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide / genetics*
Serotonin Plasma Membrane Transport Proteins / genetics*

Substances

SLC6A4 protein, human
Serotonin Plasma Membrane Transport Proteins
COMT protein, human
Catechol O-Methyltransferase