Department of Neurobiology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel.
PLoS One. 2011;6(9):e25274. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0025274. Epub 2011 Sep 28.
The genetic origins of altruism, defined here as a costly act aimed to benefit non-kin individuals, have not been examined in young children. However, previous findings concerning adults pointed at the arginine vasopressin receptor 1A (AVPR1A) gene as a possible candidate. AVPR1A has been associated with a range of behaviors including aggressive, affiliative and altruistic phenotypes, and recently a specific allele (327 bp) of one of its promoter region polymorphisms (RS3) has been singled out in particular. We modeled altruistic behavior in preschoolers using a laboratory-based economic paradigm, a modified dictator game (DG), and tested for association between DG allocations and the RS3 "target allele." Using both population and family-based analyses we show a significant link between lower allocations and the RS3 "target allele," associating it, for the first time, with a lower proclivity toward altruistic behavior in children. This finding helps further the understanding of the intricate mechanisms underlying early altruistic behavior.
利他主义的遗传起源，在这里被定义为一种旨在使非亲属个体受益的代价高昂的行为，尚未在幼儿中进行研究。然而，之前关于成年人的研究结果指出，精氨酸加压素受体 1A（AVPR1A）基因可能是一个候选基因。AVPR1A 与一系列行为有关，包括攻击性、亲和性和利他性行为，最近，其启动子区域多态性（RS3）的一个特定等位基因（327bp）被特别挑出。我们使用基于实验室的经济范式，即改良版的独裁者游戏（DG），在学龄前儿童中模拟利他行为，并测试 DG 分配与 RS3“目标等位基因”之间的关联。使用群体和基于家庭的分析，我们发现较低的分配与 RS3“目标等位基因”之间存在显著关联，这是首次将其与儿童中较低的利他行为倾向联系起来。这一发现有助于进一步理解早期利他行为背后复杂的机制。
