Heritability and molecular genetic basis of acoustic startle eye blink and affectively modulated startle response: a genome-wide association study.
Acoustic startle responses have been studied extensively in relation to individual differences and psychopathology. We examined three indices of the blink response in a picture-viewing paradigm-overall startle magnitude across all picture types, and aversive and pleasant modulation scores-in 3,323 twins and parents. Biometric models and molecular genetic analyses showed that half the variance in overall startle was due to additive genetic effects. No single nucleotide polymorphism was genome-wide significant, but GRIK3 produced a significant effect when examined as part of a candidate gene set. In contrast, emotion modulation scores showed little evidence of heritability in either biometric or molecular genetic analyses. However, in a genome-wide scan, PARP14 produced a significant effect for aversive modulation. We conclude that, although overall startle retains potential as an endophenotype, emotion-modulated startle does not.
Department of Psychology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA.
Uma
U
Vaidyanathan
Stephen M
SM
Malone
Michael B
MB
Miller
Matt
M
McGue
William G
WG
Iacono
D000293:Adolescent; D001767:Blinking; D002648:Child; D004576:Electromyography; D058068:Endophenotypes; D005260:Female; D055106:Genome-Wide Association Study; D006801:Humans; D007206:Individuality; D008297:Male; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011065:Poly(ADP-ribose) Polymerases / Q000235:genetics; D018092:Kainic Acid Receptors / Q000235:genetics; D013216:Reflex, Startle / Q000235:genetics*; D055139:Sensory Gating / Q000235:genetics*; D014427:Twins / Q000235:genetics*; D055815:Young Adult; D000097808:GluK3 Kainate Receptor
D011065:Poly(ADP-ribose) Polymerases; D018092:Kainic Acid Receptors; D000097808:GluK3 Kainate Receptor; C584083:PARP14 protein, human
Endophenotypes; GCTA; Gene-based tests; Genome-wide association study; Heritability; Molecular genetics; Startle