Social cognition, face processing, and oxytocin receptor single nucleotide polymorphisms in typically developing...

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Genetics
• Developmental Psychology

Background:

• Social cognition (SC) is linked to neural and genetic factors, including the oxytocin receptor (OXTR) gene.
• Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) traits and SC deficits are associated with face processing and OXTR variations.
• Limited research quantifies natural variations in ASD-like traits within the typical population.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the natural variation in SC traits in typically developing (TD) children.
• To examine the relationship between behavior, electroencephalogram (EEG) data, and OXTR gene variations.
• To identify specific OXTR single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with SC performance.

Main Methods:

• TD children underwent neurocognitive assessments and provided saliva for OXTR genotyping.
• EEG recordings were obtained during a face processing task.
• Analysis focused on individual SNPs and their interactions, particularly rs2254298 and rs53576.

Main Results:

• No significant associations were found for individual OXTR SNPs or EEG data alone.
• A significant interaction was observed between SNPs rs2254298 and rs53576.
• The AG/GG allele combination of these interacting SNPs correlated with reduced performance on neurocognitive measures of SC.

Conclusions:

• Neither OXTR SNP rs2254298 nor rs53576 confers risk for SC deficits in isolation.
• The combined effect of specific alleles from rs2254298 and rs53576 negatively impacts SC across multiple neurocognitive assessments.
• This highlights the importance of gene-gene interactions in understanding the continuum of social cognition.