Epigenetic modification of the oxytocin receptor gene is associated with emotion processing in the infant brain
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Abstract
The neural capacity to discriminate between emotions emerges early in development, though little is known about specific factors that contribute to variability in this vital skill during infancy. In adults, DNA methylation of the oxytocin receptor gene (OXTRm) is an epigenetic modification that is variable, predictive of gene expression, and has been linked to autism spectrum disorder and the neural response to social cues. It is unknown whether OXTRm is variable in infants, and whether it is predictive of early social function. Implementing a developmental neuroimaging epigenetics approach in a large sample of infants (N = 98), we examined whether OXTRm is associated with neural responses to emotional expressions. OXTRm was assessed at 5 months of age. At 7 months of age, infants viewed happy, angry, and fearful faces while functional near-infrared spectroscopy was recorded. We observed that OXTRm shows considerable variability among infants. Critically, infants with higher OXTRm show enhanced responses to anger and fear and attenuated responses to happiness in right inferior frontal cortex, a region implicated in emotion processing through action-perception coupling. Findings support models emphasizing oxytocin's role in modulating neural response to emotion and identify OXTRm as an epigenetic mark contributing to early brain function.
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High-quality rearing lowers OXTR and NR3C1 methylation.
“studies demonstrate that having a high-quality rearing lowers OXTR and NR3C1 methylation”
From The clinical use of epigenetics in psychiatry: a narrative review of epigenetic mechanisms, key candidate genes, and precision psychiatry (2025) · cites this paper as [55]
The Results report that maternal personal distress correlates positively with infant OXTR methylation, but personal distress is not a measure of rearing quality. The Discussion says maternal behavior’s effect on OXTR methylation needs direct study and cautions against causal conclusions. A search for NR3C1 found no relevant passage in our copy. (LLM, conf=0.74)
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ASPECTOS GENÉTICOS DO TRANSTORNO DO ESPECTRO AUTISTA (TEA)
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TEA LEVE: ANTIGA SINDROME DE ASPERGER
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- Authors
- Krol, K. M., Puglia, M. H., Morris, J. P., Connelly, J. J., & Grossmann, T.
- Affiliations
- Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences (DE)
- University of Virginia (US)
- Corresponding author
- Krol, Kathleen M.
- Venue
- Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2019-06
- Volume
- 37
- Pages
- 100648
- ISSN
- 1878-9293 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC6969294
- OpenAlex
- W2941947643
- Cited by
- 86
- References
- 63
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 7 · 2024: 10 · 2023: 13 · 2022: 22 · 2021: 15 · 2020: 12 · 2019: 3
- FWCI
- 16.33
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- MPG.PuRe (Max Planck Society) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- PsyArXiv (OSF Preprints) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- PsyArXiv (OSF Preprints) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Max Planck Society
- University of Virginia
- International Max Planck Research School
- NIH NRSA T32 Research Training in Neuroendocrinology Fellowship
- Hartwell Biomedical Research Fellowship
- National Science Foundation (1228522, 1729289)
- Examining an Epigenetic Biomarker of Social Perception
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Neuroendocrine regulation and behavior
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Face Recognition and Perception
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Autism Spectrum Disorder Research
- Keywords
- oxytocin receptor gene, DNA methylation, epigenetics, emotional processing, infant brain, facial expression perception, inferior frontal cortex, perception-action coupling, social development (developmental psychology), developmental neuroimaging
- MeSH terms
- Brain, Emotions, Female, Humans, Infant, Male, Receptors, Oxytocin, Epigenesis, Genetic
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