Abstract
Reciprocity with primary caregivers affects subjects' adaptive abilities toward the construction of the most useful personal meaning organization (PMO) with respect to their developmental environment. Within cognitive theory the post-rationalist approach has outlined two basic categories of identity construction and of regulation of cognitive and emotional processes: the Outward and the Inward PMO. The presence of different, consistent clinical patterns in Inward and Outward subjects is paralleled by differences in cerebral activation during emotional tasks on fMRI and by different expression of some polymorphisms in serotonin pathways. Since several lines of evidence support a role for the 5-HTTLPR polymorphism in mediating individual susceptibility to environmental emotional stimuli, this study was conducted to investigate its influence in the development of the Inward/Outward PMO.PMO was assessed and the 5-HTTLPR polymorphism investigated in 124 healthy subjects who were subdivided into an Inward (n = 52) and an Outward (n = 72) group.Case-control comparisons of short allele (S) frequencies showed significant differences between Inwards and Outwards (p = 0.036, χ2 test; p = 0.026, exact test). Genotype frequencies were not significantly different although values slightly exceeded p≤0.05 (p = 0.056, χ2 test; p = 0.059, exact test). Analysis of the 5-HTTLPR genotypes according to the recessive inheritance model showed that the S/S genotype increased the likelihood of developing an Outward PMO (p = 0.0178, χ2 test; p = 0.0143, exact test; OR = 3.43, CI (95%) = 1.188–9.925). A logistic regression analysis confirmed the association between short allele and S/S genotypes with the Outward PMO also when gender and age were considered. However none of the differences remained significant after correction for multiple testing, even though using the recessive model they approach significance.Overall our data seem to suggest a putative genetic basis for interindividual differences in PMO development.
Highlights
A highly distinctive feature of consciousness is the construction of a unified sense of self, i.e. of a personal meaning
This study seeks a relationship between 5-HTTLPR alleles and/ or genotypes and the Inward/Outward Personal Meaning Organization’’ (PMO); in particular, it investigates whether individual ways of perceiving care-giver attitudes, which may involve different but consistent ways of experiencing events, may result from a predisposition
The genotype frequency distributions of the S and L polymorphisms were in Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium (HWE) in the whole population (p = 1) as well as in Inward and in Outward subjects (p = 0.378 and p = 0.621)
Summary
A highly distinctive feature of consciousness is the construction of a unified sense of self, i.e. of a personal meaning. When care-giver behaviors and expressions are perceived as being not thoroughly predictable, depending on external requirements, expectations and rules which the child is as yet unable to decipher, they are found to be more difficult to decode In these cases the child needs to read the environmental signals, while emotional activations require him/her to use selfevaluating cognitive schemata. This study seeks a relationship between 5-HTTLPR alleles and/ or genotypes and the Inward/Outward PMO; in particular, it investigates whether individual ways of perceiving care-giver attitudes, which may involve different but consistent ways of experiencing events, may result from a predisposition
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