Relationship Between Oxytocin Receptor Genotype and Recognition of Facial Emotion

The ability to understand thoughts and feelings of another person is an important prerequisite for successful social interaction. One part of this ability is the recognition of emotions in the face of the counterpart. Knowledge on genetic contributions to emotion recognition is still scarce. In the present study, 105 healthy participants were experimentally tested for their ability to recognize complex emotions in faces. As prior studies outlined the importance of the oxytocin system for emotion recognition, the functional rs2268498 polymorphism on the OXTR-gene was investigated. Although there were no differences in reaction times between genotype groups, carriers of the T-allele exhibited more accurate recognition skills than subjects carrying the CC-genotype. There was no influence of gender or age. Results support recent findings, demonstrating the importance of the oxytocin system for affect processing and related social behavior.