Virginia Institute for Psychiatric and Behavioral Genetics, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA, USA.
Center for Clinical and Translational Research, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA, USA.
J Child Psychol Psychiatry. 2019 Jun;60(6):638-645. doi: 10.1111/jcpp.13018. Epub 2019 Feb 18.
Callous-Unemotional (CU) and psychopathic traits are consistently associated with impaired recognition of others' emotions, specifically fear and sadness. However, no studies have examined whether the association between CU traits and emotion recognition deficits is due primarily to genetic or environmental factors.
The current study used data from 607 Caucasian twin pairs (N = 1,214 twins) to examine the phenotypic and genetic relationship between the Inventory of Callous-Unemotional Traits (ICU) and facial emotion recognition assessed via the laboratory-based Facial Expression Labeling Task (FELT).
The uncaring/callous dimension of the ICU was significantly associated with impaired recognition of happiness, sadness, fear, surprise, and disgust. The unemotional ICU dimension was significantly associated with improved recognition of surprise and disgust. Total ICU score was significantly associated with impaired recognition of sadness. Significant genetic correlations were found for uncaring/callous traits and distress cue recognition (i.e. fear and sadness). The observed relationship between uncaring/callous traits and deficits in distress cue recognition was accounted for entirely by shared genetic influences.
The results of the current study replicate previous findings demonstrating impaired emotion recognition among youth with elevated CU traits. We extend these findings by replicating them in an epidemiological sample not selected or enriched for pathological levels of CU traits. Furthermore, the current study is the first to investigate the genetic and environmental etiology of CU traits and emotion recognition, and results suggest genetic influences underlie the specific relationship between uncaring/callous traits and distress cue (fear/sadness) recognition in others.
冷酷无情（CU）和精神病态特征与识别他人情绪（尤其是恐惧和悲伤）的能力受损有关。然而，尚无研究检验 CU 特征与情绪识别缺陷之间的关联是否主要归因于遗传或环境因素。
本研究使用了 607 对白种人双胞胎（N=1214 对双胞胎）的数据，以检验 ICU 量表（Inventory of Callous-Unemotional Traits）和基于实验室的面部表情识别任务（Facial Expression Labeling Task，FELT）评估的面部表情识别之间的表型和遗传关系。
ICU 的冷漠/无情维度与对幸福、悲伤、恐惧、惊讶和厌恶的识别受损显著相关。无情感的 ICU 维度与对惊讶和厌恶的识别改善显著相关。总 ICU 评分与悲伤的识别受损显著相关。冷漠/无情特征与痛苦线索识别（即恐惧和悲伤）存在显著的遗传相关性。冷漠/无情特征与痛苦线索识别缺陷之间的观察到的关系完全归因于共同的遗传影响。
本研究结果复制了先前的研究发现，即在 CU 特征较高的年轻人中存在情绪识别受损。我们通过在未选择或富集病理性 CU 特征的流行病学样本中复制这些发现来扩展这些发现。此外，本研究首次调查了 CU 特征和情绪识别的遗传和环境病因学，结果表明遗传影响是冷漠/无情特征与他人痛苦线索（恐惧/悲伤）识别之间特定关系的基础。
