title: Neural and behavioral responses to threatening emotion faces in children as a function of the short allele of the serotonin transporter gene.
abstract: Recent evidence suggests that a genetic polymorphism in the promoter region (5-HTTLPR) of the serotonin transporter 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-HTTLPR allelic variation and responses to fearful and angry faces presented both sub- and supraliminally in participants, ages 9-17. 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 fearful and angry faces than did l-allele homozygotes in various regions of association cortex previously linked to attention control in adults. These results indicate that in children and adolescents, s-allele carriers can be distinguished from l-allele homozygotes on the basis of hypervigilant behavioral and neural processing of negative material.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA. moriah@stanford.edu
authors.forename: Moriah E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Thomason
authors.forename: Melissa L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Henry
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Paul Hamilton
authors.forename: Jutta
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Joormann
authors.forename: Daniel S
authors.initials: DS
authors.lastname: Pine
authors.forename: Monique
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ernst
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Goldman
authors.forename: Karin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Mogg
authors.forename: Brendan P
authors.initials: BP
authors.lastname: Bradley
authors.forename: Jennifer C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Britton
authors.forename: Kara M
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Lindstrom
authors.forename: Christopher S
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: Monk
authors.forename: Lindsey S
authors.initials: LS
authors.lastname: Sankin
authors.forename: Hugo M C
authors.initials: HM
authors.lastname: Louro
authors.forename: Ian H
authors.initials: IH
authors.lastname: Gotlib
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology; D001921:Brain / Q000098:blood supply / Q000473:pathology; D001931:Brain Mapping; D002648:Child; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology*; D005145:Face; D005239:Fear / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D005787:Gene Frequency; D055106:Genome-Wide Association Study; D005838:Genotype; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods; D008297:Male; D010100:Oxygen / Q000097:blood; D011110:Polymorphism, Genetic / Q000235:genetics*; D050486:Serotonin Plasma Membrane Transport Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000235:genetics / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology
chemical_list: D050486:Serotonin Plasma Membrane Transport Proteins; D010100:Oxygen