MAOA Genotype, Maltreatment, and Aggressive Behavior: The Changing Impact of Genotype at Varying Levels of Trauma
Open accessAbstract
Background Childhood adversity has been shown to interact with monoamine oxidase-A (MAOA) genotype to confer risk for antisocial behavior. Studies examining this gene-by-environment (G x E) association, however, have produced mixed results.Methods Relevant research is reviewed, and results of a study with 114 children (73 maltreated and 41 control subjects) are presented. The maltreated children represent the extreme on a continuum of adversity and were assessed at a time of extreme stress-shortly after removal from their parents' care due to abuse. Measures of aggressive behavior were obtained using standard research instruments, and monoamine oxidase-A MAOA genotypes were obtained from saliva-derived DNA specimens. Population structure was controlled for using ancestral proportion scores computed on the basis of genotypes of ancestry informative markers.Results Many prior investigations appear to have had reduced power to detect the predicted G x E interaction because of low base rates of maltreatment and antisocial behavior in their samples and failure to use optimal procedures to control for population structure in ethnically diverse cohorts. In this investigation, a significant interaction was detected between exposure to moderate trauma and the "low-activity" MAOA genotype in conferring risk for aggression. Children with exposure to extreme levels of trauma, however, had high aggression scores regardless of genotype.Conclusions Our study suggests that problems in aggressive behavior in maltreated children are moderated by MAOA genotype, but only up to moderate levels of trauma exposure. Extreme levels of trauma appear to overshadow the effect of MAOA genotype, especially in children assessed at time of acute crisis.
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Early life stress elicits both increased play fighting and adult aggressive behaviors in different species.
“This finding is consistent with former observations in different species showing that both increased play fighting and adult aggressive behaviors are elicited by early life stress.”
From Peripubertal stress increases play fighting at adolescence and modulates nucleus accumbens CB1 receptor expression and mitochondrial function in the amygdala (2018) · cites this paper as [38]
The Results (TTES; page unavailable) link childhood trauma with aggression scores in children, supporting an association between early adversity and aggression. The paper does not establish increased play fighting, adult aggression, or observations across different species; its findings also do not establish that stress elicits those behaviors. (LLM, conf=0.88)
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- Authors
- Weder, N., Yang, B. Z., Douglas-Palumberi, H., Massey, J., Krystal, J. H., Gelernter, J., & Kaufman, J.
- Affiliations
- Yale University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Kaufman, Joan
- Venue
- Biological Psychiatry
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2009-03
- Volume
- 65
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 417-424
- ISSN
- 0006-3223 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC3816252
- OpenAlex
- W2029963158
- Cited by
- 190
- References
- 46
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 7 · 2021: 5 · 2020: 10 · 2019: 8 · 2018: 10 · 2017: 6 · 2016: 13 · 2015: 21 · 2014: 15 · 2013: 25 · 2012: 13
- FWCI
- 16.30
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Biological Psychiatry (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institutes of Health (5k05aa014906-03)
- National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (R01 AA 11330, P50 AA-12870-04, K05-AA014906, R01AA011330, KO5AA14906-01, P50AA012870)
- National Institute of Mental Health (MH 14276, 1 R01MH65519-01, R01MH077087, R01MH065519, R25MH071584, T32MH014276)
- National Institute on Drug Abuse (K24 DA15105, K24DA015105)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child Abuse and Trauma
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience › Neurotransmitter Receptor Influence on Behavior
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Psychopathy, Forensic Psychiatry, Sexual Offending
- Keywords
- monoamine oxidase A, child abuse, aggression, gene-environment interaction, childhood adversity, trauma exposure, antisocial behavior, ancestry informative markers
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Aggression, Child, Child Abuse, Child, Preschool, DNA, Female, Gene Frequency, Genotype, Humans, Male, Monoamine Oxidase, Saliva, Wounds and Injuries
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