Department of Psychology, Binghamton University (SUNY), Binghamton, NY 13902-6000, USA.
Cogn Emot. 2011 Sep;25(6):1104-20. doi: 10.1080/02699931.2010.508267. Epub 2011 May 24.
Theorists have proposed that negative experiences in childhood may contribute to the development of experience-specific information-processing biases, including attentional biases. There are also clear genetic influences on cognitive processes, with evidence that polymorphisms in specific candidate genes may moderate the impact of environmental stress on attentional biases (e.g., a functional polymorphism in the serotonin transporter gene; 5-HTTLPR). In the current study, we tested a gene×environment (G×E) model of risk for attentional biases. We hypothesised that children whose mothers exhibit high levels of expressed emotion criticism (EE-Crit) would display attentional biases specifically for angry, but not happy or sad, faces, and that this link would be stronger among children carrying one or two copies of the 5-HTTLPR short allele than among those homozygous for the long allele. Results generally supported these hypotheses, though we found that carriers of the 5-HTTLPR short allele who also had a critical mother exhibited attentional avoidance of angry faces rather than preferential attention.
理论学家提出，童年时期的负面经历可能会导致特定经验的信息处理偏见的发展，包括注意力偏见。认知过程也受到明显的遗传影响，有证据表明，特定候选基因中的多态性可能会调节环境压力对注意力偏见的影响（例如，5-羟色胺转运蛋白基因中的功能多态性；5-HTTLPR）。在当前的研究中，我们测试了注意力偏见的风险的基因×环境（G×E）模型。我们假设，如果母亲表现出高水平的表达情绪批评（EE-Crit），那么孩子会对愤怒的面孔表现出注意力偏见，而不是对快乐或悲伤的面孔表现出注意力偏见，并且在携带一个或两个 5-HTTLPR 短等位基因的儿童中，这种联系比在纯合长等位基因的儿童中更强。结果总体上支持了这些假设，但我们发现，携带 5-HTTLPR 短等位基因且有挑剔母亲的儿童表现出对愤怒面孔的注意力回避，而不是对其的偏好。
