Recent evidence suggests that a genetic polymorphism in the promoter region (5-HTTLPR) of the serotonin transporter gene (SLC6A4) mediates stress reactivity in adults. Little is known, however, about this gene-brain association in childhood and adolescence, generally conceptualized as a time of heightened stress reactivity. The present study examines the association between 5-HTTLPR allelic variation and responses to fearful and angry faces presented both sub- and supraliminally in participants, ages 9-17. Behaviorally, carriers of the 5-HTTLPR short (s) allele exhibited significantly greater attentional bias to subliminally presented fear faces than did their long (l)-allele homozygous counterparts. Moreover, s-allele carriers showed greater neural activations to fearful and angry faces than did l-allele homozygotes in various regions of association cortex previously linked to attention control in adults. These results indicate that in children and adolescents, s-allele carriers can be distinguished from l-allele homozygotes on the basis of hypervigilant behavioral and neural processing of negative material. © 2010 Elsevier B.V.
CITATION STYLE
Thomason, M. E., Henry, M. L., Paul Hamilton, J., Joormann, J., Pine, D. S., Ernst, M., … Gotlib, I. H. (2010). Neural and behavioral responses to threatening emotion faces in children as a function of the short allele of the serotonin transporter gene. Biological Psychology, 85(1), 38–44. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsycho.2010.04.009
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