Department of Individual Differences and Psychological Assessment, University of Ulm, 89069 Ulm, Germany.
Genes Brain Behav. 2013 Jun;12(4):438-45. doi: 10.1111/gbb.12034. Epub 2013 Apr 15.
The oxytocin and the dopaminergic systems have turned out to be highly relevant for social abilities and cognition. Therefore, we examined the association between two functional gene polymorphisms and face cognition (FC) in a multivariate study (N = 250) by applying structural equation modeling. The catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) val158met polymorphism influences the enzyme activity of COMT, which affects the prefrontal dopamine concentration. The rs226849 is a single-nucleotide polymorphism located in the promoter region of the oxytocin receptor (OXTR) gene, modulating the mRNA expression. By modeling a general fluid ability factor (defined by working memory and reasoning) and nested FC factors, we tested genetic contributions to FC, after controlling for variance in FC that was also associated with fluid abilities. In line with several previous studies, we found a significant association between the COMT genotype and fluid abilities (Gf) but not with FC. The association between the oxytocin polymorphism and Gf was opposite in direction for men and women. Women with the C(+) genotype performed better on Gf tasks than those with the C(-) genotype. Conversely, men with the C(-) genotype performed better than those with the C(+) genotype. There was no significant association between OXTR and the nested FC factor. Therefore, the relationship between the oxytocin polymorphism and FC can be fully accounted for by Gf. The sex specificity of this relationship is a novel finding and warrants a mechanistic explanation.
催产素和多巴胺系统已被证明与社交能力和认知高度相关。因此，我们通过结构方程模型，在一项多元研究（N=250）中，检查了两种功能基因多态性与面孔认知（FC）之间的关联。儿茶酚-O-甲基转移酶（COMT）val158met 多态性影响 COMT 的酶活性，从而影响前额叶多巴胺浓度。rs226849 是位于催产素受体（OXTR）基因启动子区域的单核苷酸多态性，调节 mRNA 表达。通过构建一般流体能力因素（由工作记忆和推理定义）和嵌套的 FC 因素模型，我们在控制与流体能力相关的 FC 方差后，测试了遗传对 FC 的贡献。与几项先前的研究一致，我们发现 COMT 基因型与流体能力（Gf）之间存在显著关联，但与 FC 无关。催产素多态性与 Gf 之间的关联在男性和女性之间的方向相反。C(+) 基因型的女性在 Gf 任务上的表现优于 C(-) 基因型的女性。相反，C(-) 基因型的男性比 C(+) 基因型的男性表现更好。OXTR 与嵌套的 FC 因子之间没有显著关联。因此，催产素多态性与 FC 之间的关系可以完全由 Gf 来解释。这种关系的性别特异性是一个新发现，需要进行机制解释。
