The functional catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) val158met polymorphism has been found to be associated with anxiety disorders and depression as well as with neural correlates of emotional processing, with, however, contradictory results. Thus, the aim of the present study was to re-evaluate the impact of the COMT val158met variant on neural activation correlates of emotional face processing in a sample of healthy probands. In 85 healthy subjects genotyped for the COMT val158met polymorphism, amygdala responses were assessed by means of fMRI. Participants were presented with anger- and fear-relevant faces in a robust emotion-processing paradigm. For exploratory reasons, a supplementary whole-brain analysis of the allele-dose model and a gender-stratified analysis were conducted. The COMT 158val allele showed an allele-dose effect on increased predominantly left-sided amygdala activity in response to fearful/angry facial stimuli (p(uncorrected)=.00004). This effect was independent from the distribution of the frequently studied 5-HTTLPR polymorphism for which a linear effect of S-alleles on amygdala responsiveness was replicated. The influence of COMT 158val alleles was only discerned in the female subgroup of probands. The whole-brain analysis suggested associations of the COMT 158val allele with increased activity in areas of the ventral visual stream and the lateral prefrontal cortex. The present results provide further support for a-potentially female-specific-role of the COMT val158met polymorphism in the genetic and neural underpinnings of anxiety- and depression-related intermediate phenotypes and may aid in further clarifying the differential role of COMT genotype driven dopaminergic tonus in the processing of emotionally salient stimuli.
Pubmed ID: 22387174 RIS Download
Publication data is provided by the National Library of Medicine ® and PubMed ®. Data is retrieved from PubMed ® on a weekly schedule. For terms and conditions see the National Library of Medicine Terms and Conditions.
Software automated coordinate based system to retrieve brain labels from the 1988 Talairach Atlas. Talairach Daemon database contains anatomical names for brain areas using x-y-z coordinates defined by the 1988 Talairach Atlas.
View all literature mentionsSoftware package for analysis of brain imaging data sequences. Sequences can be a series of images from different cohorts, or time-series from same subject. Current release is designed for analysis of fMRI, PET, SPECT, EEG and MEG.
View all literature mentionsSoftware application that tests for deviation from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium and tests for association in case controls studies; Plot genotype frequencies graphically using a de Finetti diagram. (entry from Genetic Analysis Software)
View all literature mentions