Department of Experimental Psychology, Utrecht University, Heidelberglaan 1, 3584 CS, Utrecht, the Netherlands.
Research Institute of Child Development and Education, University of Amsterdam, PO Box 15780, 1001 NG Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
Eur Neuropsychopharmacol. 2020 Oct;39:19-28. doi: 10.1016/j.euroneuro.2020.08.008.
Childhood trauma fundamentally shapes social cognition and basic processing of social cues, which frequently cascade into adverse behavioral outcomes. Recent studies indicate that epigenetic changes in oxytocin functioning might contribute to these long-term effects, although a deeper understanding of the underlying mechanisms is still lacking. The electroencephalographic N170 response to faces might capture a neural response at the core of these interactive effects of oxytocin gene methylation and childhood adversity, given that this response is considered to reflect fundamental face processing, to be susceptible to oxytocin administration and also to be a biomarker of various psychiatric disorders. We assessed the N170 response to neutral faces in relation to participant's (81, women) recalled childhood trauma, methylation of their oxytocin structural (OXTg) and oxytocin receptor (OXTRg) genes, and endogenous levels of cortisol and testosterone. Additionally, we investigated the interactive effect of OXTg methylation and CTQ across three face sets of varying maturity. Methylation of OXTg relates to a weakened N170 response towards adults, children and infants. Moreover, methylation of both OXTRg and OXTg shaped the directionality of adversity effects, predicting a weakened N170 response in those with high methylation and hyper-vigilance with participants with low methylation. Our results are the first to relate OXT(R)g methylation to the N170 response. They shed light on biological processes linking childhood adversity and epigenetic marks to altered behavior and potentially psychopathologies.
儿童创伤从根本上塑造了社会认知和对社会线索的基本处理，这些线索常常会引发不良的行为后果。最近的研究表明，催产素功能的表观遗传变化可能是这些长期影响的原因之一，尽管人们对潜在机制的理解还不够深入。脑电 N170 对面孔的反应可能捕捉到了催产素基因甲基化和儿童逆境这些相互作用的核心神经反应，因为这种反应被认为反映了基本的面孔处理，容易受到催产素的影响，也是各种精神障碍的生物标志物。我们评估了与参与者（81 名女性）回忆中的儿童创伤、催产素结构 (OXTg) 和催产素受体 (OXTRg) 基因的甲基化以及皮质醇和睾酮的内源性水平相关的中性面孔的 N170 反应。此外，我们还研究了 OXTg 甲基化和 CTQ 在三个不同成熟度的面孔集之间的交互作用。OXTg 甲基化与成人、儿童和婴儿的 N170 反应减弱有关。此外，OXTRg 和 OXTg 的甲基化塑造了逆境效应的方向性，预测高甲基化的参与者和低甲基化的参与者的 N170 反应减弱。我们的研究结果首次将 OXT(R)g 甲基化与 N170 反应联系起来。它们揭示了将儿童逆境和表观遗传标记与行为改变和潜在精神病理联系起来的生物学过程。
