title: Genetic modulation of the response bias towards facial displays of anger and happiness.
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.
authors.affiliation: 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.
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Gohier
authors.affiliation: School of Life and Health Sciences, Aston University, Aston Triangle, Birmingham, UK.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Senior
authors.affiliation: Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, London, UK; FIDMAG, CIBERSAM, Sant Boi de Llobregat, Spain.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Radua
authors.affiliation: Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, London, UK; Inserm U930, Université François Rabelais, CHRU de Tours, Tours, France.
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: El-Hage
authors.affiliation: Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, London, UK.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Reichenberg
authors.affiliation: Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, London, UK.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Proitsi
authors.affiliation: 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.
authors.forename: M L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Phillips
authors.affiliation: Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, London, UK; Cygnet Health Care, London, UK.
authors.forename: S A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Surguladze
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000342:Affective Symptoms / Q000235:genetics; D000786:Anger; D002394:Catechol O-Methyltransferase / Q000235:genetics*; D056348:Emotional Intelligence / Q000235:genetics*; D005149:Facial Expression; D005260:Female; D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease / Q000235:genetics; D060005:Genotyping Techniques; D006240:Happiness; D006720:Homozygote; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D020641:Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide / Q000235:genetics*; D050486:Serotonin Plasma Membrane Transport Proteins / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: C493230:SLC6A4 protein, human; D050486:Serotonin Plasma Membrane Transport Proteins; C588010:COMT protein, human; D002394:Catechol O-Methyltransferase
keywords: 5-HTTLPR; COMT; Emotional disorders; Facial emotion recognition; Genes