title: Sexually dimorphic link between dopamine D2 receptor gene and neuroticism-anxiety.
abstract: Prior theory-driven research probing the association between dopaminergic candidate genes and human personality has focused on the trait of novelty seeking. Here, we examined the association between the dopamine D2 receptor (DRD2) TaqI A polymorphism and two other personality traits, neuroticism-anxiety and agentic extraversion. We found no significant associations for agentic extraversion. However, for men, but not for women, we observed a strong and specific association between low neuroticism-anxiety and the A1+ allele of the DRD2 TaqI A polymorphism across two independent samples and across two alternative personality scales. We conclude that new theoretical models are needed to account for these and other recent reports of associations between neuroticism-anxiety and brain dopamine, which cannot be interpreted within the traditional framework.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Marburg, 35032 Marburg, Germany. wacker@staff.uni-marburg.de
authors.forename: Jan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wacker
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Reuter
authors.forename: Jürgen
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hennig
authors.forename: Gerhard
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Stemmler
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000235:genetics*; D005260:Female; D005787:Gene Frequency; D005838:Genotype; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010551:Personality / Q000235:genetics*; D011110:Polymorphism, Genetic; D017448:Receptors, Dopamine D2 / Q000235:genetics*; D012727:Sex Characteristics
chemical_list: D017448:Receptors, Dopamine D2