Open AccessOxytocin receptor gene variants are associated with emotion recognition and resilience, but not with false‐belief reasoning performance in healthy young Korean volunteers
Author(s) -
Kim Hae Won,
Kang Jee In,
An Suk Kyoon,
Kim Se Joo
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
cns neuroscience and therapeutics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.403
H-Index - 69
eISSN - 1755-5949
pISSN - 1755-5930
DOI - 10.1111/cns.13075
Subject(s) - oxytocin receptor , psychology , theory of mind , social cognition , emotion perception , social cognitive theory , affect (linguistics) , cognition , trait , developmental psychology , psychological resilience , perception , cognitive psychology , oxytocin , social psychology , psychiatry , neuroscience , communication , computer science , programming language
Summary Aims A growing body of literature has indicated that oxytocin is associated with several domains of social cognition and behavior. Nevertheless, the effects of oxytocin receptor gene ( OXTR ) polymorphisms on social phenotypes remain unclear. Therefore, we aimed to explore the genetic influence of OXTR variants on social cognition (social perception and theory of mind) and resilience in healthy individuals. Methods We examined the influence of 10 common OXTR variants on social cognitive abilities, including facial emotion recognition and theory of mind, and trait resilience in 264 unrelated, healthy participants. Results We found a significant association between the A‐C haplotype at rs237887‐rs2268490 and facial affect recognition. In addition, the single marker rs2254298 was significantly associated with participants’ scores on the Connor‐Davidson Resilience Scale. In contrast, variations in OXTR did not affect participants’ performance on the false‐belief reasoning task. Conclusions Single makers or haplotypes at OXTR may contribute to individual differences in facial emotion recognition and psychological resilience.