Variation in the human cannabinoid receptor CNR1 gene modulates gaze duration for happy faces
Open accessAbstract
BACKGROUND: From an early age, humans look longer at preferred stimuli and also typically look longer at facial expressions of emotion, particularly happy faces. Atypical gaze patterns towards social stimuli are common in autism spectrum conditions (ASC). However, it is unknown whether gaze fixation patterns have any genetic basis. In this study, we tested whether variations in the cannabinoid receptor 1 (CNR1) gene are associated with gaze duration towards happy faces. This gene was selected because CNR1 is a key component of the endocannabinoid system, which is involved in processing reward, and in our previous functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study, we found that variations in CNR1 modulate the striatal response to happy (but not disgust) faces. The striatum is involved in guiding gaze to rewarding aspects of a visual scene. We aimed to validate and extend this result in another sample using a different technique (gaze tracking). METHODS: A total of 30 volunteers (13 males and 17 females) from the general population observed dynamic emotional expressions on a screen while their eye movements were recorded. They were genotyped for the identical four single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the CNR1 gene tested in our earlier fMRI study. RESULTS: Two SNPs (rs806377 and rs806380) were associated with differential gaze duration for happy (but not disgust) faces. Importantly, the allelic groups associated with a greater striatal response to happy faces in the fMRI study were associated with longer gaze duration at happy faces. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that CNR1 variations modulate the striatal function that underlies the perception of signals of social reward, such as happy faces. This suggests that CNR1 is a key element in the molecular architecture of perception of certain basic emotions. This may have implications for understanding neurodevelopmental conditions marked by atypical eye contact and facial emotion processing, such as ASC.
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
A polymorphism in the CB1 cannabinoid receptor gene modulates social gaze.
“Chakrabarti and Baron-Cohen reported that a polymorphism in the CB1 cannabinoid receptor gene modulates social gaze.18”
From Enhancement of anandamide-mediated endocannabinoid signaling corrects autism-related social impairment (2016) · cites this paper as [18]
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Cites
Ekman, P. (1976) · Medical Entomology and Zoology · Cited by 4,345 · see citing works
Baron-Cohen, S., & Wheelwright, S. (2004) · Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders · doi:10.1023/b:jadd.0000022607.19833.00 · Cited by 4,093 · see citing works
Self-citationThe reward circuit: linking primate anatomy and human imaging
Haber, S. N., & Knutson, B. (2010) · Neuropsychopharmacology · doi:10.1038/npp.2009.129 · Cited by 3,718 · see citing works
The NimStim set of facial expressions: Judgments from untrained research participants.
Tottenham, N., Tanaka, J. W., Leon, A. C., McCarry, T., Nurse, M., Hare, T. A., Marcus, D. J., Westerlund, A., Casey, B., & Nelson, C. (2009) · Psychiatry Research · doi:10.1016/j.psychres.2008.05.006 · Cited by 3,454 · see citing works
Getting formal with dopamine and reward
Schultz, W. (2002) · Neuron · doi:10.1016/s0896-6273(02)00967-4 · Cited by 2,574 · see citing works
Klin, A., Jones, W., Schultz, R., Volkmar, F., & Cohen, D. (2002) · Archives of General Psychiatry · doi:10.1001/archpsyc.59.9.809 · Cited by 2,120 · see citing works
Baron‐Cohen, S., Jolliffe, T., Mortimore, C., & Robertson, M. (1997) · Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry · doi:10.1111/j.1469-7610.1997.tb01599.x · Cited by 1,970 · see citing works
Self-citationNyholt, D. R. (2004) · The American Journal of Human Genetics · doi:10.1086/383251 · Cited by 1,699 · see citing works
Role of Endogenous Cannabinoids in Synaptic Signaling
Freund, T. F., Katona, I., & Piomelli, D. (2003) · Physiological Reviews · doi:10.1152/physrev.00004.2003 · Cited by 1,567 · see citing works
Adjusting multiple testing in multilocus analyses using the eigenvalues of a correlation matrix
Li, J., & Ji, L. (2005) · Heredity · doi:10.1038/sj.hdy.6800717 · Cited by 1,458 · see citing works
Human gaze control during real-world scene perception
Henderson, J. (2003) · Trends in Cognitive Sciences · doi:10.1016/j.tics.2003.09.006 · Cited by 1,409 · see citing works
Baron-Cohen, S., Wheelwright, S., & Jolliffe, T. (1997) · Visual Cognition · doi:10.1080/713756761 · Cited by 1,050 · see citing works
Self-citationWhat minds have in common is space: Spatial mechanisms serving joint visual attention in infancy
Butterworth, G. E., & Jarrett, N. (1991) · British Journal of Developmental Psychology · doi:10.1111/j.2044-835x.1991.tb00862.x · Cited by 950 · see citing works
Gaze bias both reflects and influences preference
Shimojo, S., Simion, C., Shimojo, E., & Scheier, C. (2003) · Nature Neuroscience · doi:10.1038/nn1150 · Cited by 924 · see citing works
Mindblind eyes: an absence of spontaneous theory of mind in Asperger syndrome
Senju, A., Southgate, V., White, S., & Frith, U. (2009) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.1176170 · Cited by 769 · see citing works
Are People with Autism and Asperger Syndrome Faster Than Normal on the Embedded Figures Test?
Jolliffe, T., & Baron‐Cohen, S. (1997) · Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry · doi:10.1111/j.1469-7610.1997.tb01539.x · Cited by 744 · see citing works
Self-citationGOLAN, O., & BARON-COHEN, S. (2006) · Development and Psychopathology · doi:10.1017/s0954579406060305 · Cited by 645 · see citing works
Self-citationDudbridge, F. (2008) · Human Heredity · doi:10.1159/000119108 · Cited by 607 · see citing works
Dawson, G., Carver, L., Meltzoff, A. N., Panagiotides, H., McPartland, J., & Webb, S. J. (2002) · Child Development · doi:10.1111/1467-8624.00433 · Cited by 523 · see citing works
Postmortem brain abnormalities of the glutamate neurotransmitter system in autism
Purcell, A. E., Jeon, O. H., Zimmerman, A. W., Blue, M. E., & Pevsner, J. (2001) · Neurology · doi:10.1212/wnl.57.9.1618 · Cited by 518 · see citing works
Aberrant Striatal Functional Connectivity in Children with Autism
Di Martino, A., Kelly, C., Grzadzinski, R., Zuo, X.-N., Mennes, M., Mairena, M. A., Lord, C., Castellanos, F. X., & Milham, M. P. (2011) · Biological Psychiatry · doi:10.1016/j.biopsych.2010.10.029 · Cited by 483 · see citing works
Sex differences in human neonatal social perception
Connellan, J., Baron‐Cohen, S., Wheelwright, S. J., Bátki, A., & Ahluwalia, J. S. (2000) · Infant Behavior and Development · doi:10.1016/s0163-6383(00)00032-1 · Cited by 479 · see citing works
Self-citationScott‐Van Zeeland, A. A., Dapretto, M., Ghahremani, D. G., Poldrack, R. A., & Bookheimer, S. Y. (2010) · Autism Research · doi:10.1002/aur.122 · Cited by 458 · see citing works
Initial Heritability Analyses of Endophenotypic Measures for Schizophrenia
Greenwood, T. A., BRAFF, D. L., Light, G. A., Cadenhead, K. S., Calkins, M. E., Dobie, D. J., Freedman, R., Green, M. F., Gur, R. E., Gur, R. C., et al. (2007) · Archives of General Psychiatry · doi:10.1001/archpsyc.64.11.1242 · Cited by 382 · see citing works
Swettenham, J., Baron‐Cohen, S., Charman, T., Cox, A., Baird, G., Drew, A., Rees, L., & Wheelwright, S. (1998) · Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry · doi:10.1111/1469-7610.00373 · Cited by 370 · see citing works
Self-citationEye-movements reveal attention to social information in autism spectrum disorder
Fletcher‐Watson, S., Leekam, S. R., Benson, V., Frank, M. C., & Findlay, J. M. (2008) · Neuropsychologia · doi:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2008.07.016 · Cited by 358 · see citing works
Golan, O., Baron-Cohen, S., & Hill, J. (2006) · Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders · doi:10.1007/s10803-005-0057-y · Cited by 335 · see citing works
Self-citationGaze Patterns When Looking at Emotional Pictures: Motivationally Biased Attention
Calvo, M. G., & Lang, P. J. (2004) · Motivation and Emotion · doi:10.1023/b:moem.0000040153.26156.ed · Cited by 331 · see citing works
Genetics of Human Social Behavior
Ebstein, R. P., Israel, S., Chew, S. H., Zhong, S., & Knafo, A. (2010) · Neuron · doi:10.1016/j.neuron.2010.02.020 · Cited by 323 · see citing works
Chakrabarti, B., Dudbridge, F., Kent, L., Wheelwright, S., Hill‐Cawthorne, G., Allison, C., Banerjee‐Basu, S., & Baron‐Cohen, S. (2009) · Autism Research · doi:10.1002/aur.80 · Cited by 295 · see citing works
Self-citationvan der Stelt, M., & Marzo, V. D. (2003) · European Journal of Pharmacology · doi:10.1016/j.ejphar.2003.08.101 · Cited by 286 · see citing works
Changes in the Developmental Trajectories of Striatum in Autism
Langen, M., Schnack, H. G., Nederveen, H., Bos, D. J., Lahuis, B., de Jonge, M. V., van Engeland, H., & Durston, S. (2009) · Biological Psychiatry · doi:10.1016/j.biopsych.2009.03.017 · Cited by 257 · see citing works
Cannabinoid Transmission and Reward-Related Events
Gardner, E. L., & Vorel, S. R. (1998) · Neurobiology of Disease · doi:10.1006/nbdi.1998.0219 · Cited by 247 · see citing works
Amygdala Activation Predicts Gaze toward Fearful Eyes
Gamer, M., & Buchel, C. (2009) · Journal of Neuroscience · doi:10.1523/jneurosci.1883-09.2009 · Cited by 203 · see citing works
Atypical Reflexive Gaze Patterns on Emotional Faces in Autism Spectrum Disorders
Kliemann, D., Dziobek, I., Hatri, A., Steimke, R., & Heekeren, H. R. (2010) · Journal of Neuroscience · doi:10.1523/jneurosci.0688-10.2010 · Cited by 194 · see citing works
Domschke, K., Dannlowski, U., Ohrmann, P., Lawford, B. R., Bauer, J., Kugel, H., Heindel, W. L., Young, R. M., Morris, C. P., Arolt, V., et al. (2008) · European Neuropsychopharmacology · doi:10.1016/j.euroneuro.2008.05.003 · Cited by 189 · see citing works
Cai, X., Kim, S., & Lee, D. (2011) · Neuron · doi:10.1016/j.neuron.2010.11.041 · Cited by 179 · see citing works
Action and Outcome Encoding in the Primate Caudate Nucleus
Lau, B., & Glimcher, P. W. (2007) · Journal of Neuroscience · doi:10.1523/jneurosci.3060-07.2007 · Cited by 177 · see citing works
Individual and Additive Effects of the CNR1 and FAAH Genes on Brain Response to Marijuana Cues
Filbey, F. M., Schacht, J. P., Myers, U. S., Chavez, R. S., & Hutchison, K. E. (2009) · Neuropsychopharmacology · doi:10.1038/npp.2009.200 · Cited by 172 · see citing works
Basal ganglia morphometry and repetitive behavior in young children with autism spectrum disorder
Estes, A. M., Shaw, D., Sparks, B. F., Friedman, S. D., Giedd, J. N., Dawson, G., Bryan, M. J., & Dager, S. R. (2011) · Autism Research · doi:10.1002/aur.193 · Cited by 172 · see citing works
Empathizing with basic emotions: Common and discrete neural substrates
Chakrabarti, B., Bullmore, E. T., & Baron‐Cohen, S. (2006) · Social Neuroscience · doi:10.1080/17470910601041317 · Cited by 158 · see citing works
Self-citationBasal Ganglia Mechanisms of Reward‐Oriented Eye Movement
Hikosaka, O. (2007) · Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1196/annals.1390.012 · Cited by 155 · see citing works
Kohls, G., Peltzer, J., Herpertz‐Dahlmann, B., & Konrad, K. (2009) · Developmental Science · doi:10.1111/j.1467-7687.2009.00816.x · Cited by 145 · see citing works
The Anatomy and Physiology of Primate Neurons that Control Rapid Eye Movements
Moschovakis, A. K., & Highstein, S. M. (1994) · Annual Review of Neuroscience · doi:10.1146/annurev.ne.17.030194.002341 · Cited by 134 · see citing works
Time course of attentional bias to emotional scenes in anxiety: Gaze direction and duration
Calvo, M. G., & Avero, P. (2005) · Cognition & Emotion · doi:10.1080/02699930441000157 · Cited by 130 · see citing works
Variations in the human cannabinoid receptor (CNR1) gene modulate striatal responses to happy faces
Chakrabarti, B., Kent, L., John Suckling, A., Bullmore, E. T., & Baron‐Cohen, S. (2006) · European Journal of Neuroscience · doi:10.1111/j.1460-9568.2006.04697.x · Cited by 122 · see citing works
Self-citationNeural activation to emotional faces in adolescents with autism spectrum disorders
Weng, S.-J., Carrasco, M., Swartz, J. R., Wiggins, J. L., Kurapati, N. T., Liberzon, I., Risi, S., Lord, C., & Monk, C. S. (2010) · Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry · doi:10.1111/j.1469-7610.2010.02317.x · Cited by 111 · see citing works
Expression of cannabinoid CB 1 receptor mRNA in basal ganglia of normal and parkinsonian human brain
Hurley, M. J., Mash, D. C., & Jenner, P. G. (2003) · Journal of Neural Transmission · doi:10.1007/s00702-003-0033-7 · Cited by 107 · see citing works
The Incentive Salience of Alcohol: Translating the Effects of Genetic Variant in <i>CNR1</i>
Hutchison, K. E., Haughey, H., Niculescu, M., Schacht, J., Kaiser, A., Stitzel, J., Horton, W. J., & Filbey, F. (2008) · Archives of General Psychiatry · doi:10.1001/archpsyc.65.7.841 · Cited by 102 · see citing works
Immunolocalization of CB 1 receptor in rat striatal neurons: A confocal microscopy study
Fusco, F. R., Martorana, A., Giampà, C., March, Z. D., Farini, D., D’Angelo, V., Sancesario, G., & Bernardi, G. (2004) · Synapse · doi:10.1002/syn.20047 · Cited by 83 · see citing works
Zeeland, A. A. S., Dapretto, M., Ghahremani, D. G., Poldrack, R. A., & Bookheimer, S. Y. (2011) · Autism · doi:10.1002/aur.122.reward · Cited by 79 · see citing works
Visual processing, learning and feedback in the primate eye movement system
Trommershäuser, J., Glimcher, P. W., & Gegenfurtner, K. R. (2009) · Trends in Neurosciences · doi:10.1016/j.tins.2009.07.004 · Cited by 42 · see citing works
Katsanis, J., Taylor, J. E., Iacono, W. G., et al. (2000) · Psychophysiology · doi:10.1111/1469-8986.3760724 · Cited by 38 · see citing works
Temporal context and the recognition of emotion from facial expression
el Kaliouby, R., Robinson, P., & Keates, S. (2003) · Cited by 32 · see citing works
Iacono, W. G. (1982) · Behavior Genetics · doi:10.1007/bf01073782 · Cited by 28 · see citing works
CandiSNPer: a web tool for the identification of candidate SNPs for causal variants
Schmitt, A. O., Aßmus, J., Bortfeldt, R. H., et al. (2010) · Bioinformatics · doi:10.1093/bioinformatics/btq068 · Cited by 20 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Research works printed but not linked: 1
- Chakrabarti B Individual differences in human emotion perception: neuroimaging, genetic and behavioural investigations PhD thesis 2007 Department of Psychiatry, School of Clinical Medicine, University of Cambridge
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Toward a second-person neuroscience
Schilbach, L., Timmermans, B., Reddy, V., Costall, A., Bente, G., Schlicht, T., & Vogeley, K. (2013) · Behavioral and Brain Sciences · doi:10.1017/s0140525x12000660 · Cited by 1,510 · see citing works
Endocannabinoids in Amygdala and Nucleus Accumbens Mediate Social Play Reward in Adolescent Rats
Trezza, V., Damsteegt, R., Manduca, A., Petrosino, S., Van Kerkhof, L. W. M., Pasterkamp, R. J., Zhou, Y., Campolongo, P., Cuomo, V., Di Marzo, V., et al. (2012) · The Journal of Neuroscience · doi:10.1523/jneurosci.0114-12.2012 · Cited by 190 · see citing works
The role of the amygdala in atypical gaze on emotional faces in autism spectrum disorders
Kliemann, D., Dziobek, I., Hatri, A., Baudewig, J., & Heekeren, H. R. (2012) · Journal of Neuroscience · doi:10.1523/jneurosci.5294-11.2012 · Cited by 183 · see citing works
Wei, D., Dinh, D., Lee, D., Li, D., Anguren, A., Moreno-Sanz, G., Gall, C. M., & Piomelli, D. (2016) · Cannabis and Cannabinoid Research · doi:10.1089/can.2015.0008 · Cited by 122 · see citing works
- Authors
- Chakrabarti, B., & Baron-Cohen, S.
- Affiliations
- University of Cambridge (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Chakrabarti, Bhismadev
- Venue
- Molecular Autism
- Published
- 2011
- Volume
- 2
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 10
- ISSN
- 2040-2392 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC3155489
- OpenAlex
- W2099870770
- Cited by
- 57
- References
- 56
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 5 · 2021: 7 · 2020: 3 · 2019: 1 · 2018: 6 · 2017: 5 · 2016: 5 · 2015: 3 · 2014: 1 · 2013: 6 · 2012: 5
- FWCI
- 1.95
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- cc-by
- Locations
- Molecular Autism (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Funders
- Nancy Lurie Marks Family Foundation
- National Institute for Health and Care Research
- University of Cambridge
- Medical Research Council
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Face Recognition and Perception
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Pharmacology › Cannabis and Cannabinoid Research
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Autism Spectrum Disorder Research
- Keywords
- CNR1 gene, CB1 receptor, single nucleotide polymorphisms, gaze duration, happy faces, emotional face processing, endocannabinoid system, striatum, social reward, autism spectrum disorder, eye contact, genetic variation
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
