COMTVal158Met Genotype Affects Complex Emotion Recognition in Healthy Men and Women.

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COMTVal158Met Genotype Affects Complex Emotion Recognition in Healthy Men and Women.

Front Neurosci. 2018;12:1007

Authors: Lischke A, Pahnke R, König J, Homuth G, Hamm AO, Wendt J

Abstract
The catechol-o-methyltransferase (COMT) gene has repeatedly been shown to change amygdala activity and amygdala-prefrontal connectivity during face processing. Although the COMT gene appears to induce a negativity bias during the neural processing of faces, it is currently unclear whether a similar negativity bias emerges during the behavioral processing of faces. To address this issue, we investigated differences in complex emotion recognition between participants (n = 181) that had been a priori genotyped for functional polymorphisms of the COMT (Val158Met) and serotonin transporter (5-HTTLPR) gene. We were, thus, able to analyze differences in face processing on basis of participants' COMT genotype while controlling for participants' 5-HTTLPR genotype. Variations of participants' COMT but not 5-HTTLPR genotype accounted for differences in participants' emotion recognition performance: Met/Met carriers and Met/Val carriers were more accurate in the recognition of negative, but not neutral or positive, expressions than Val/Val carriers. We, therefore, revealed a similar negativity bias during the behavioral processing of faces that has already been demonstrated during the neural processing of faces, indicating that genotype-dependent changes in catecholamine metabolism may affect face processing on the behavioral and neural level.

PMID: 30723391 [PubMed]

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