Associations between the oxytocin receptor gene (OXTR) and "mind-reading" in humans--an exploratory study.
OBJECTIVE
The application of intranasal oxytocin enhances facial emotion recognition in normal subjects and in subjects with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). In addition, various features of social cognition have been associated with variants of the oxytocin receptor gene (OXTR). Therefore, we tested for associations between mind-reading, a measure for social recognition and OXTR polymorphisms.


METHODS
76 healthy adolescents and young adults were tested for associations between OXTR rs53576, rs2254298, rs2228485 and mind-reading using the "Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test" (RMET).


RESULTS
After Bonferroni correction for multiple comparisons, rs2228485 was associated with the number of incorrect answers when subjects evaluated male faces (P =0.000639). There were also associations between OXTR rs53576, rs2254298 and rs2228485 and other RMET dimensions according to P <0.05 (uncorrected).


CONCLUSIONS
This study adds further evidence to the hypothesis that genetic variations in the OXTR modulate mind-reading and social behaviour.
Hospital for Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of Greifswald at HELIOS-Hanseklinikum Stralsund, Rostocker Chaussee 70, Stralsund, Germany. lucht@uni-greifswald.de
Michael J
MJ
Lucht
Sven
S
Barnow
Christine
C
Sonnenfeld
Ines
I
Ulrich
Hans Joergen
HJ
Grabe
Winnie
W
Schroeder
Henry
H
Völzke
Harald J
HJ
Freyberger
Ulrich
U
John
Falko H
FH
Herrmann
Heyo
H
Kroemer
Dieter
D
Rosskopf
D000293:Adolescent; D005145:Face; D005260:Female; D005838:Genotype; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010121:Oxytocin / Q000502:physiology; D046709:Pattern Recognition, Physiological / Q000502:physiology*; D020641:Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide; D018045:Receptors, Oxytocin / Q000235:genetics*; D012919:Social Behavior; D055815:Young Adult
D018045:Receptors, Oxytocin; D010121:Oxytocin