Massey Suena H, Estabrook Ryne, O'Brien T Caitlin, Pine Daniel S, Burns James L, Jacob Suma, Cook Edwin H, Wakschlag Lauren S
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, 676 North Saint Clair Street, Suite 1000, Chicago, IL, USA; Department of Medical Social Sciences, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, 633 North Saint Clair Street, 19th Floor, Chicago, IL, USA.
Department of Medical Social Sciences, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, 633 North Saint Clair Street, 19th Floor, Chicago, IL, USA.
Neurosci Lett. 2015 Jan 1;584:259-64. doi: 10.1016/j.neulet.2014.10.049. Epub 2014 Nov 1.
Prenatal smoking cessation has been described as an empathic action "for the baby," but this has not been empirically demonstrated. We capitalized on a genetically-characterized extant dataset with outstanding measurement of prenatal smoking patterns and maternal face processing data (as an indicator of empathy) to test this hypothesis, and explore how empathy and smoking patterns may be moderated by a genetic substrate of empathy, the oxytocin receptor gene (OXTR). Participants were 143 Caucasian women from the East Boston family study with repeated prospective reports of smoking level, adjusted based on repeated cotinine bioassays. Salivary DNA and face processing (Diagnostic Analysis of Nonverbal Accuracy-2) were assessed 14 years later at an adolescent follow-up of offspring. Two-thirds of participants reported smoking prior to pregnancy recognition. Of these, 21% quit during pregnancy; 56% reduced smoking, and 22% smoked persistently at the same level. A significant interaction between face processing and OXTR variants previously associated with increased sensitivity to social context, rs53576GG and rs2254298A, was found (β = -.181; p = .015); greater ability to identify distress in others was associated with lower levels of smoking during pregnancy for rs53576(GG)/rs2254298(A) individuals (p = .013), but not for other genotypes (p = .892). Testing this "empathy hypothesis of prenatal smoking cessation" in larger studies designed to examine this question can elucidate whether interventions to enhance empathy can improve prenatal smoking cessation rates.
产前戒烟被描述为一种“为了宝宝”的共情行为，但这尚未得到实证证明。我们利用一个已进行基因特征分析的现有数据集，该数据集对产前吸烟模式和母亲面部加工数据（作为共情指标）进行了出色的测量，以检验这一假设，并探讨共情和吸烟模式如何可能受到共情的遗传底物——催产素受体基因（OXTR）的调节。参与者是来自东波士顿家庭研究的143名白人女性，她们对吸烟水平进行了重复的前瞻性报告，并根据重复的可替宁生物测定进行了调整。14年后，在对后代的青少年随访中评估了唾液DNA和面部加工（非言语准确性诊断分析-2）。三分之二的参与者报告在确认怀孕前吸烟。其中，21%在孕期戒烟；56%减少了吸烟量，22%持续以相同水平吸烟。研究发现，面部加工与先前与对社会环境敏感性增加相关的OXTR变体rs53576GG和rs2254298A之间存在显著交互作用（β = -.181；p = .015）；对于rs53576（GG）/rs2254298（A）个体，识别他人痛苦的能力越强，孕期吸烟水平越低（p = .013），但其他基因型则不然（p = .892）。在旨在研究这个问题的更大规模研究中检验这种“产前戒烟的共情假设”，可以阐明增强共情的干预措施是否能提高产前戒烟率。
