title: Interaction between oxytocin receptor polymorphism and interdependent culture values on human empathy.
abstract: Recent evidence suggests that the association between oxytocin receptor polymorphism (OXTR rs53576) and emotion-related behavioral/psychological tendencies differs between individuals from East Asian and Western cultures. What remains unresolved is which specific dimension of cultural orientations interacts with OXTR rs53576 to shape these tendencies and whether such gene × culture interactions occurs at both behavioral and neural level. This study investigated whether and how OXTR rs53576 interacts with interdependence-a key dimension of cultural orientations that distinguish between East Asian and Western cultures-to affect human empathy that underlies altruistic motivation and prosocial behavior. Experiment 1 measured interdependence, empathy trait and OXTR rs53576 genotypes of 1536 Chinese participants. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed a stronger association between interdependence and empathy trait in G allele carriers compared with A/A homozygotes of OXTR rs53576. Experiment 2 measured neural responses to others' suffering by scanning A/A and G/G homozygous of OXTR rs53576 using functional magnetic resonance imaging. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed stronger associations between interdependence and empathic neural responses in the insula, amygdala and superior temporal gyrus in G/G compared with A/A carriers. Our results provide the first evidence for gene × culture interactions on empathy at both behavioral tendency and underlying brain activity.
authors: Department of Psychology, PKU-IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, and.
authors: Siyang
authors: S
authors: Luo
authors: Department of Psychology, PKU-IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, and.
authors: Yina
authors: Y
authors: Ma
authors: Department of Psychology, PKU-IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, and.
authors: Yi
authors: Y
authors: Liu
authors: PKU-IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, and Peking-Tsinghua Center for Life Sciences at School of Life Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China.
authors: Bingfeng
authors: B
authors: Li
authors: Department of Psychology, PKU-IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, and.
authors: Chenbo
authors: C
authors: Wang
authors: Department of Psychology, PKU-IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, and.
authors: Zhenhao
authors: Z
authors: Shi
authors: Department of Psychology, PKU-IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, and.
authors: Xiaoyang
authors: X
authors: Li
authors: PKU-IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, and Peking-Tsinghua Center for Life Sciences at School of Life Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China.
authors: Wenxia
authors: W
authors: Zhang
authors: PKU-IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, and Peking-Tsinghua Center for Life Sciences at School of Life Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China.
authors: Yi
authors: Y
authors: Rao
authors: Department of Psychology, PKU-IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, and shan@pku.edu.cn.
authors: Shihui
authors: S
authors: Han
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000483:Alleles; D044466:Asian People / Q000235:genetics; D003469:Culture; D004644:Emotions; D004645:Empathy / Q000235:genetics*; D005260:Female; D005838:Genotype; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D020641:Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide; D018045:Receptors, Oxytocin / Q000235:genetics*; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000235:genetics; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D018045:Receptors, Oxytocin
keywords: culture value; empathy; fMRI; oxytocin receptor gene