Prefrontal morphology, 5‐HTTLPR polymorphism and biased attention for emotional stimuli

Biased attention for emotional stimuli has been associated with vulnerability to psychopathology. This study examines the neural substrates of biased attention. Twenty‐three adult women completed high‐resolution structural imaging followed by a standard behavioral measure of biased attention (i.e. s...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Genes, brain and behavior brain and behavior, 2010-03, Vol.9 (2), p.224-233
Main Authors: Beevers, C. G., Pacheco, J., Clasen, P., McGeary, J. E., Schnyer, D.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Amygdala - anatomy & histology
Amygdala - physiology
Attention - physiology
Brain Mapping
Carrier State
Continental Population Groups
Demography
Depression vulnerability
Depressive Disorder - genetics
DNA - genetics
DNA - isolation & purification
DNA Primers
Emotions - physiology
Female
genetic association
Genetic Variation
Humans
Income
information processing
Polymorphism, Genetic
Prefrontal Cortex - anatomy & histology
Prefrontal Cortex - physiology
Promoter Regions, Genetic
Serotonin Plasma Membrane Transport Proteins - genetics
structural MRI
Young Adult
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Summary:Biased attention for emotional stimuli has been associated with vulnerability to psychopathology. This study examines the neural substrates of biased attention. Twenty‐three adult women completed high‐resolution structural imaging followed by a standard behavioral measure of biased attention (i.e. spatial cueing task). Participants were also genotyped for the serotonin transporter‐linked promoter region (5‐HTTLPR) gene. Results indicated that lateral prefrontal cortex (lPFC) morphology was inversely associated with maintained attention for positive and negative stimuli, but only among short 5‐HTTLPR allele carriers. No such associations were observed for the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) or the amygdala. Results from this study suggest that brain regions involved in cognitive control of emotion are also associated with attentional biases for emotion stimuli among short 5‐HTTLPR allele carriers.
ISSN:1601-1848
1601-183X
DOI:10.1111/j.1601-183X.2009.00550.x