Park Hye Yoon, Lee Suonaa, Koo Se Jun, Li Zhenxu, Seo Eunchong, Lee Eun, An Suk Kyoon
Department of Psychiatry, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Yongin Severance Hospital, Yongin, Republic of Korea.
Section of Self, Affect and Neuroscience, Institute of Behavioral Science in Medicine, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
Sci Rep. 2025 Jan 27;15(1):3412. doi: 10.1038/s41598-025-86770-w.
Social cognition, which ranges from recognizing social cues to intricate inferential reasoning, is influenced by environmental factors and epigenetic mechanisms. Notably, methylation variations in stress-related genes like brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and the oxytocin receptor (OXTR) are linked to distinct social cognitive functions and exhibit sex-specific differences. This study investigates how these methylation differences affect social cognition across sexes, focusing on both perceptual and inferential cognitive levels. Social cognitive abilities were assessed using the Korean version of the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (K-RMET) and Brune's story-based Theory of Mind tasks (ToM-PST). DNA methylation levels in BDNF and OXTR were analyzed for correlations with performance on these cognitive tasks in a cohort of male and female participants. A moderation model was applied to determine if sex moderates the relationship between social cognition and DNA methylation. No significant overall correlation was found between social cognition and DNA methylation across participants. However, sex-specific correlations were identified, including a negative impact of BDNF methylation on K-RMET scores in males, and a similar effect of OXTR methylation on ToM-PST scores in females. The findings underscore the complex relationship between epigenetic modifications and social cognition, revealing sex-specific effects and highlighting the importance of considering sex in epigenetic studies of social cognition. This research contributes to understanding how epigenetic factors, influenced by sex, shape social cognitive processes and supports the need for sex-specific therapeutic approaches.
社会认知涵盖从识别社会线索到复杂的推理过程，受到环境因素和表观遗传机制的影响。值得注意的是，与应激相关的基因如脑源性神经营养因子（BDNF）和催产素受体（OXTR）的甲基化变化与不同的社会认知功能相关，并表现出性别特异性差异。本研究调查了这些甲基化差异如何影响不同性别的社会认知，重点关注感知和推理认知水平。使用韩语版的《读心术测试》（K-RMET）和基于布鲁内故事的心理理论任务（ToM-PST）评估社会认知能力。分析了男性和女性参与者队列中BDNF和OXTR的DNA甲基化水平与这些认知任务表现之间的相关性。应用调节模型来确定性别是否调节社会认知与DNA甲基化之间的关系。在所有参与者中，未发现社会认知与DNA甲基化之间存在显著的总体相关性。然而，发现了性别特异性相关性，包括BDNF甲基化对男性K-RMET分数的负面影响，以及OXTR甲基化对女性ToM-PST分数的类似影响。这些发现强调了表观遗传修饰与社会认知之间的复杂关系，揭示了性别特异性影响，并突出了在社会认知的表观遗传学研究中考虑性别的重要性。这项研究有助于理解受性别影响的表观遗传因素如何塑造社会认知过程，并支持采用针对性别的治疗方法的必要性。
