School of Nursing, Peking University Health Science Centre, Beijing, 100191, China.
Beijing Key Laboratory of Applied Experimental Psychology, National Demonstration Center for Experimental Psychology Education, Faculty of Psychology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875, China.
Sci Rep. 2020 Feb 7;10(1):2134. doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-58747-4.
Previous studies have shown that face-specific recognition ability (FRA) is heritable; however, the neural basis of this heritability is unclear. Candidate gene studies have suggested that the catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) rs4680 polymorphism is related to face perception. Here, using a partial least squares (PLS) method, we examined the multivariate association between 12 genotypes of 4 COMT polymorphisms (rs6269-rs4633-rs4818-rs4680) and multimodal MRI phenotypes in the human fusiform face area (FFA), which selectively responds to face stimuli, in 338 Han Chinese adults (mean age 20.45 years; 135 males). The MRI phenotypes included gray matter volume (GMV), resting-state fractional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (fALFF), and face-selective blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) responses (FS). We found that the first COMT-variant component (PLS1) was positively associated with the FS but negatively associated with the fALFF in the FFA. Moreover, participants with the COMT heterozygous-HEA-haplotype showed higher PLS1 FFA-MRI scores, which were positively associated with the FRA in an old/new face recognition task, than those with the COMT homozygous HEA haplotype and HEA non-carriers, suggesting that individuals with an appropriate (intermediate) level of dopamine activity in the FFA might have better FRA. In summary, our study provides empirical evidence for the genetic and neural basis for the heritability of face recognition and informs the formation of neural module functional specificity.
先前的研究表明，面孔特异性识别能力（FRA）是可遗传的；然而，这种遗传性的神经基础尚不清楚。候选基因研究表明，儿茶酚-O-甲基转移酶（COMT）rs4680 多态性与面孔知觉有关。在这里，我们使用偏最小二乘法（PLS）方法，在 338 名汉族成年人（平均年龄 20.45 岁；135 名男性）中，检查了 4 个 COMT 多态性（rs6269-rs4633-rs4818-rs4680）的 12 种基因型与选择性响应面孔刺激的人类梭状回面孔区（FFA）的多模态 MRI 表型之间的多元关联。MRI 表型包括灰质体积（GMV）、静息态低频振幅分数（fALFF）和面孔选择性血氧水平依赖（BOLD）反应（FS）。我们发现，第一个 COMT 变体成分（PLS1）与 FFA 中的 FS 呈正相关，与 fALFF 呈负相关。此外，携带 COMT 杂合-HEA 单倍型的参与者在 FFA 中表现出更高的 PLS1 FFA-MRI 评分，与旧/新面孔识别任务中的 FRA 呈正相关，而携带 COMT 纯合 HEA 单倍型和 HEA 非携带者的参与者则没有，这表明 FFA 中多巴胺活性适中的个体可能具有更好的 FRA。总之，我们的研究为面孔识别遗传性的遗传和神经基础提供了经验证据，并为神经模块功能特异性的形成提供了信息。
