Wade Mark, Hoffmann Thomas J, Jenkins Jennifer M
Department of Applied Psychology and Human Development, University of Toronto, 252 Bloor Street West, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5S 1V6 and.
Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Institute for Human Genetics, University of California at San Francisco, UCSF Box 0794, 513 Parnassus Avenue, S965, San Francisco, CA 94143-0794, USA.
Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci. 2015 Dec;10(12):1749-57. doi: 10.1093/scan/nsv064. Epub 2015 May 14.
Theory of mind (ToM) is the ability to interpret and understand human behaviour by representing the mental states of others. Like many human capacities, ToM is thought to develop through both complex biological and socialization mechanisms. However, no study has examined the joint effect of genetic and environmental influences on ToM. This study examined how variability in the oxytocin receptor gene (OXTR) and parenting behavior--two widely studied factors in ToM development-interacted to predict ToM in pre-school-aged children. Participants were 301 children who were part of an ongoing longitudinal birth cohort study. ToM was assessed at age 4.5 using a previously validated scale. Parenting was assessed through observations of mothers' cognitively sensitive behaviours. Using a family-based association design, it was suggestive that a particular variant (rs11131149) interacted with maternal cognitive sensitivity on children's ToM (P = 0.019). More copies of the major allele were associated with higher ToM as a function of increasing cognitive sensitivity. A sizeable 26% of the variability in ToM was accounted for by this interaction. This study provides the first empirical evidence of gene-environment interactions on ToM, supporting the notion that genetic factors may be modulated by potent environmental influences early in development.
心理理论（ToM）是一种通过表征他人的心理状态来解释和理解人类行为的能力。与许多人类能力一样，心理理论被认为是通过复杂的生物机制和社会化机制共同发展起来的。然而，尚无研究考察基因和环境影响对心理理论的联合作用。本研究考察了催产素受体基因（OXTR）的变异性和养育行为（心理理论发展中两个被广泛研究的因素）如何相互作用，以预测学龄前儿童的心理理论。研究对象为301名儿童，他们是一项正在进行的纵向出生队列研究的一部分。在4.5岁时使用先前验证过的量表对心理理论进行评估。通过观察母亲的认知敏感行为来评估养育方式。采用基于家庭的关联设计，结果表明一个特定的变体（rs11131149）与母亲的认知敏感性在儿童心理理论方面存在相互作用（P = 0.019）。随着认知敏感性的增加，主要等位基因的拷贝数越多，心理理论得分越高。这种相互作用解释了心理理论中26%的相当大的变异性。本研究首次提供了基因-环境相互作用对心理理论影响的实证证据，支持了遗传因素可能在发育早期受到强大环境影响调节的观点。
