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Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience Advance Access published online on June 17, 2009
Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, doi:10.1093/scan/nsp019
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© The Author (2009). Published by Oxford University Press. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Genetic contributions of the serotonin transporter to social learning of fear and economic decision making

Liviu G. Crisan1,*, Simona Pana1,*, Romana Vulturar1, Renata M. Heilman1, Raluca Szekely1, Bogdan Druga2, Nicolae Dragos2 and Andrei C. Miu1

1Department of Psychology, Babes-Bolyai University, 400015 Cluj-Napoca and 2Department of Biology, Babes-Bolyai University, 400084 Cluj-Napoca, Romania

Serotonin (5-HT) modulates emotional and cognitive functions such as fear conditioning (FC) and decision making. This study investigated the effects of a functional polymorphism in the regulatory region (5-HTTLPR) of the human 5-HT transporter (5-HTT) gene on observational FC, risk taking and susceptibility to framing in decision making under uncertainty, as well as multidimensional anxiety and autonomic control of the heart in healthy volunteers. The present results indicate that in comparison to the homozygotes for the long (l) version of 5-HTTLPR, the carriers of the short (s) version display enhanced observational FC, reduced financial risk taking and increased susceptibility to framing in economic decision making. We also found that s-carriers have increased trait anxiety due to threat in social evaluation, and ambiguous threat perception. In addition, s-carriers also show reduced autonomic control over the heart, and a pattern of reduced vagal tone and increased sympathetic activity in comparison to l-homozygotes. This is the first genetic study that identifies the association of a functional polymorphism in a key neurotransmitter-related gene with complex social–emotional and cognitive processes. The present set of results suggests an endophenotype of anxiety disorders, characterized by enhanced social learning of fear, impaired decision making and dysfunctional autonomic activity.

Keywords: serotonin transporter; genetic association study; fear conditioning; decision making

Correspondence should be addressed to Andrei C. Miu, 37 Republicii Street, Cluj-Napoca, CJ 400015, Romania. E-mail: andrei_miu{at}emcoglab.org

We are grateful to Dr Laura Visu-Petra for comments on the manuscript. This work was partially supported by National University Research Council of Romania [# 2440/2008].

*These authors contributed equally to this work

Received February 18, 2009. Accepted April 27, 2009.


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