title: Genetic influences on the acquisition and inhibition of fear.
abstract: As a variant of the Pavlovian fear conditioning paradigm the conditional discrimination design allows for a detailed investigation of fear acquisition and fear inhibition. Measuring fear-potentiated startle responses, we investigated the influence of two genetic polymorphisms (5-HTTLPR and COMT Val(158)Met) on fear acquisition and fear inhibition which are considered to be critical mechanisms for the etiology and maintenance of anxiety disorders. 5-HTTLPR s-allele carriers showed a more stable potentiation of the startle response during fear acquisition. Homozygous COMT Met-allele carriers, which had demonstrated delayed extinction in previous investigations, show deficient fear inhibition in presence of a learned safety signal. Thus, our results provide further evidence that 5-HTTLPR and COMT Val(158)Met genotypes influence the vulnerability for the development of anxiety disorders via different mechanisms.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Greifswald, Germany. Electronic address: julia.wendt@uni-greifswald.de.
authors.forename: Julia
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wendt
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Greifswald, Germany.
authors.forename: Jörg
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Neubert
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Greifswald, Germany.
authors.forename: Katja
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Lindner
authors.affiliation: Interfaculty Institute for Genetics and Functional Genomics, University Medicine Greifswald, University of Greifswald, Germany.
authors.forename: Florian D
authors.initials: FD
authors.lastname: Ernst
authors.affiliation: Interfaculty Institute for Genetics and Functional Genomics, University Medicine Greifswald, University of Greifswald, Germany.
authors.forename: Georg
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Homuth
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Greifswald, Germany.
authors.forename: Almut I
authors.initials: AI
authors.lastname: Weike
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Greifswald, Germany.
authors.forename: Alfons O
authors.initials: AO
authors.lastname: Hamm
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D002394:Catechol O-Methyltransferase / Q000235:genetics*; D003214:Conditioning, Classical / Q000502:physiology; D003463:Cues; D004576:Electromyography; D005239:Fear / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D005712:Galvanic Skin Response / Q000235:genetics; D005838:Genotype; D006801:Humans; D007266:Inhibition, Psychological; D008297:Male; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D020641:Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide / Q000235:genetics*; D011401:Promoter Regions, Genetic / Q000235:genetics; D013216:Reflex, Startle / Q000235:genetics*; D050486:Serotonin Plasma Membrane Transport Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D050486:Serotonin Plasma Membrane Transport Proteins; C588010:COMT protein, human; D002394:Catechol O-Methyltransferase
keywords: 5-HTTLPR; COMT Val158Met; Fear inhibition; Fear learning; Startle blink response