Neural and behavioral responses to threatening emotion faces in children as a function of the short allele of the serotonin transporter gene

Thomason, Moriah E, Henry, Melissa L, Hamilton, J. Paul, Joormann, Jutta, Pine, Daniel S., Ernst, Monique, Goldman, David, Mogg, Karin, Bradley, Brendan P., Britton, Jennifer C., Lindstrom, Kara M., Monk, Chris, Sankin, Lindsey S., Louro, Hugo M. and Gotlib, Ian H. (2010) Neural and behavioral responses to threatening emotion faces in children as a function of the short allele of the serotonin transporter gene. Biological Psychology, 85 (1), 38-44. (doi:10.1016/j.biopsycho.2010.04.009).

Abstract

Data suggest that a genetic polymorphism in the promoter region (5-HTTLPR) of the serotonin transporter (5-HTT) gene (SLC6A4) mediates stress reactivity in adults. Little is known, however, about this gene-brain association in childhood and adolescence, generally conceptualized as a time of heightened stress reactivity. The present study examines the association between 5-HTT allelic variation and responses to emotional faces presented both sub- and supraliminally in 9- to 17-year-old participants. Behaviorally, carriers of the 5-HTTLPR short (s) allele exhibited significantly greater attentional bias to subliminally presented fear faces than did their long (l)-allele homozygous counterparts. Moreover, s-allele carriers showed greater neural activations to emotion faces than did l-allele homozygotes in various regions of association cortex previously linked to attention control in adults; no such associations were observed in the amygdala. These results indicate that child and young adolescent s-allele carriers can be distinguished from l-allele homozygotes on the basis of hypervigilant behavioral and neural processing of negative material in the environment

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Contributors

Author: Brendan P. Bradley

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