Behavioural Science Institute, Radboud University Nijmegen, 6525 HR Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
J Neurosci. 2013 May 22;33(21):8974-9. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.5518-12.2013.
After a threatening event, the risk of developing social psychopathologies is increased in short-allele (s) carriers of the serotonin transporter gene. The amygdala becomes overresponsive to emotional stimuli, an effect that could be driven by local hypersensitivity or by reduced prefrontal regulation. This study distinguishes between these two hypotheses by using dynamic causal modeling of fMRI data acquired in a preselected cohort of human s-carriers and homozygous long-allele carriers. Increased amygdala activity in s-carriers originates from reduced prefrontal inhibitory regulation when social emotional behavior needs to be controlled, suggesting a mechanism for increased vulnerability to psychopathologies.
在威胁性事件发生后，5-羟色胺转运体基因短等位基因（s）携带者患社交心理病理的风险增加。杏仁核对情绪刺激的反应过度，这种效应可能是由局部超敏反应或前额叶调节减少驱动的。本研究通过对预先选择的人类 s-携带者和纯合长等位基因携带者的 fMRI 数据进行动态因果建模，区分了这两种假说。当需要控制社交情绪行为时，s 携带者的杏仁核活动增加源于前额叶抑制调节的减少，这表明了对心理病理易感性增加的一种机制。
