Elsevier

Biological Psychiatry

Volume 71, Issue 5, 1 March 2012, Pages 419-426
Biological Psychiatry

Archival Report
Variation in the Oxytocin Receptor Gene Is Associated with Pair-Bonding and Social Behavior

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsych.2011.09.002Get rights and content

Background

In specific vole and primate species the neuropeptide oxytocin plays a central role in the regulation of pair-bonding behavior. Here we investigate the extent to which genetic variants in the oxytocin receptor gene (OXTR) are associated with pair-bonding and related social behaviors in humans.

Methods

We first genotyped twelve single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the TOSS (Twin and Offspring Study in Sweden) (n = 2309) and the TCHAD (Swedish Twin Study of Child and Adolescent Development) (n = 1240), comprising measures of self-reported pair-bonding behavior. In the TOSS sample we further investigated one of the SNPs for measures of marital status and quality. Moreover, in the TCHAD sample we explored the longitudinal relationship between precursors of pair-bonding during childhood and subsequent behavior in romantic relationships. Finally, in the TCHAD study and in the Child and Adolescent Twin Study of Sweden (CATSS) (n = 1771), the association between the same SNP and childhood behaviors was investigated.

Results

One SNP (rs7632287) in OXTR was associated with traits reflecting pair-bonding in women in the TOSS and TCHAD samples. In girls the rs7632287 SNP was further associated with childhood social problems, which longitudinally predicted pair-bonding behavior in the TCHAD sample. This association was replicated in the CATSS sample in which an association between the same SNP and social interaction deficit symptoms from the autism spectrum was detected.

Conclusion

These results suggest an association between variation in OXTR and human pair-bonding and other social behaviors, possibly indicating that the well-described influence of oxytocin on affiliative behavior in voles could also be of importance for humans.

Section snippets

Methods and Materials

An overview of the different study samples, including information about the phenotypes and the order of analyses, is presented in Figure 1. More extensive descriptions of the samples and measures used are presented in the following text as well as in Supplement 1.

Results

Twelve OXTR SNPs, evenly distributed over the gene and previously proposed to be associated with autism and other aspects of social behaviors (Table 1), were genotyped in the adult men and women from the TOSS study (n = 2309) (50) and in the participants of the TCHAD study (n = 1240) sample (53). The allele and genotype distributions of the studied SNPs were similar to what has been reported in previous studies and did not deviate from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium.

Our first set of analyses

Discussion

Our current results propose an association between an SNP in OXTR (rs7632287) and pair-bonding behavior in adult and adolescent women as well as with measures of social problems in childhood, both reflected through normal variation in behavior as well as with measures of autism spectrum traits. The rs7632287 SNP was significantly associated with two different measures of pair-bonding related behaviors, including the PBS as well as the affection subscale from the RQS. Furthermore, when

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      In contrast to this interpretation, a previous study showed that oxytocin reduced the stress response to social rejection in both men and women (Linnen et al., 2012). Sex-differences in oxytocin function have been reported in animal (Bredewold & Veenema, 2018; Dumais et al., 2016; Steinman et al., 2016), as well as in a human studies (Ebner et al., 2015; Gao et al., 2016; Kubzansky et al., 2012; Ma et al., 2018; Walum et al., 2012), and may be mediated by differences in oxytocin receptor distribution, such as those reported for rats and voles (Prounis et al., 2018; Smith et al., 2017). Intranasal oxytocin has previously been reported to reduce social-stress-induced negative affect in men but not in women (Kubzansky et al., 2012).

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