Variation in the oxytocin receptor gene is associated with behavioral and neural correlates of empathic accuracy.

Helle Ruff Laursen,Susanne Henningsson,Rikke Grã¸Nlund,Oliver Hulme,Kristoffer Madsen,Hartwig Roman Siebner,Tina Haren

doi:10.3389/fnbeh.2014.00423

Helle Ruff Laursen, Susanne Henningsson + Show 5 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2014.00423

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Abstract

The neuromodulators oxytocin and serotonin have been implicated in regulating affective processes underlying empathy. Understanding this dependency, however, has been limited by a lack of objective metrics for measuring empathic performance. Here we employ a novel psychophysical method for measuring empathic performance that quantitatively measures the ability of subjects to decode the experience of another person's pain. In 50 female subjects, we acquired functional magnetic resonance imaging data as they were exposed to a target subject experiencing variable degrees of pain, whilst performing an irrelevant attention-demanding task. We investigated the effect of variation in the oxytocin receptor gene (OXTR) and the serotonin transporter gene (SLC6A4) on the psychophysical and neurometric variability associated with empathic performance. The OXTR rs2268498 and rs53576 polymorphisms, but not the SLC6A4 5-HTTLPR, were associated with significant differences in empathic accuracy, with CC- and AA-carriers, respectively, displaying higher empathic accuracy. For OXTR rs2268498 there was also a genotype difference in the correlation between empathic accuracy and activity in the superior temporal sulcus (STS). In OXTR rs2268498 CC-carriers, high empathic accuracy was associated with stronger responsiveness of the right STS to the observed pain. Together, the results show that genetic variation in the OXTR has significant influence on empathic accuracy and that this may be linked to variable responsivity of the STS.

Highlights

Empathy refers to the capacity for feeling or understanding the experience of others, and is ubiquitous for adaptive social exchange
We investigated the effect of variation in the oxytocin receptor gene (OXTR) and the serotonin transporter gene (SLC6A4) on the psychophysical and neurometric variability associated with empathic performance
The results show that genetic variation in the OXTR has significant influence on empathic accuracy and that this may be linked to variable responsivity of the superior temporal sulcus (STS)

Summary

Introduction

Empathy refers to the capacity for feeling or understanding the experience of others, and is ubiquitous for adaptive social exchange. It varies significantly across the population (Baron-Cohen et al, 2001; McDonald et al, 2003) and is highly heritable (Davis et al, 1994), suggesting that genetic variation underpins at least some of the observed heterogeneity From this perspective, the oxytocinergic and serotonergic systems are likely candidates for the expression of this heterogeneity; several studies have shown that manipulation of these systems have systematic effects on affective and social behavior (Harmer et al, 2003; Bhagwagar et al, 2004; Del-Ben et al, 2005; Anderson et al, 2007; Browning et al, 2007; Domes et al, 2007; Bartz et al, 2010; Guastella et al, 2010; Schulze et al, 2011). The rs2268498 has been associated with emotion recognition accuracy (Melchers et al, 2013), and, in combination with the 5-HTTLPR, an insertion/deletion polymorphism in the promoter region of the serotonin transporter gene (SLC6A4), it has shown a relationship to negative emotionality traits (Montag et al, 2011)

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