Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2012 Oct 10:6:280.
doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2012.00280. eCollection 2012.

DNA methylation of the oxytocin receptor gene predicts neural response to ambiguous social stimuli

Allison Jack  1 , Jessica J Connelly, James P Morris
Affiliations

DNA methylation of the oxytocin receptor gene predicts neural response to ambiguous social stimuli

Allison Jack et al. Front Hum Neurosci. .

Abstract

Oxytocin and its receptor (OXTR) play an important role in a variety of social perceptual and affiliative processes. Individual variability in social information processing likely has a strong heritable component, and as such, many investigations have established an association between common genetic variants of OXTR and variability in the social phenotype. However, to date, these investigations have primarily focused only on changes in the sequence of DNA without considering the role of epigenetic factors. DNA methylation is an epigenetic mechanism by which cells control transcription through modification of chromatin structure. DNA methylation of OXTR decreases expression of the gene and high levels of methylation have been associated with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). This link between epigenetic variability and social phenotype allows for the possibility that social processes are under epigenetic control. We hypothesized that the level of DNA methylation of OXTR would predict individual variability in social perception. Using the brain's sensitivity to displays of animacy as a neural endophenotype of social perception, we found significant associations between the degree of OXTR methylation and brain activity evoked by the perception of animacy. Our results suggest that consideration of DNA methylation may substantially improve our ability to explain individual differences in imaging genetic association studies.

Keywords: DNA methylation; epigenetics; functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI); oxytocin receptor gene; social cognition.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Regions demonstrating a significant association between OXTR methylation and Animate > Random activity. Clusters from whole-brain analysis are depicted in MNI space and neurological orientation. Average z-statistic values from the contrast of parameter estimates (COPE) in the left STG and dACC are plotted against percent OXTR methylation for each participant, with dashed lines indicating 95% confidence interval (CI) around fit line.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Allison T., Puce A., McCarthy G. (2000). Social perception from visual cues: role of the STS region. Trends Cogn. Sci. 4, 267–278 10.1016/S1364-6613(00)01501-1 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Bakermans-Kranenburg M. J., van IJzendoorn M. H. (2008). Oxytocin receptor (OXTR) and serotonin transporter (5-HTT) genes associated with observed parenting. Soc. Cogn. Affect. Neurosci. 3, 128–134 10.1093/scan/nsn004 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Beckmann C. F., Jenkinson M., Smith S. M. (2003). General multilevel linear modeling for group analysis in FMRI. Neuroimage 20, 1052–1063 10.1016/S1053-8119(03)00435-X - DOI - PubMed
    1. Bell J. T., Tsai P.-C., Yang T.-P., Pidsley R., Nisbet J., Glass D., et al. (2012). Epigenome-wide scans identify differentially methylated regions for age and age-related phenotypes in a healthy ageing population. PLoS Genet. 8:e1002629 10.1371/journal.pgen.1002629 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Bjornsson H. T., Daniele Fallin M., Feinberg A. P. (2004). An integrated epigenetic and genetic approach to common human disease. Trends Genet. 20, 350–358 10.1016/j.tig.2004.06.009 - DOI - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources