COMTVal158Met Genotype Affects Complex Emotion Recognition in Healthy Men and Women

• Published in: Frontiers in neuroscience Vol. 12; p. 1007
• Main Authors: Lischke, Alexander, Pahnke, Rike, König, Jörg, Homuth, Georg, Hamm, Alfons O, Wendt, Julia
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland Frontiers Research Foundation 22.01.2019; Frontiers Media S.A
• Subjects: 5-HTTLPR; Amygdala; Behavior; Bias; Catechol; Catechol O-methyltransferase; catecholamine; Catecholamines; COMT; emotion recognition; Emotions; Face; Genes; Genotype & phenotype; Hypothesis testing; Information processing; Methyltransferase; Neuroscience; Pattern recognition; Polymorphism; Serotonin; Serotonin transporter; social cognition; Studies; Women; Germany; serotonin; catecholamine; 5-HTTLPR; social cognition; COMT; emotion recognition
• ISSN: 1662-4548; 1662-453X; 1662-453X
• DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2018.01007

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 ( = 181) that had been 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.