ASSOCIATION OF THE SEROTONIN TRANSPORTER PROMOTER REGION POLYMORPHISM WITH BIASED ATTENTION FOR NEGATIVE WORD STIMULI

Background: Biased attention for emotional stimuli reflects vulnerability or resilience to emotional disorders. The current study examines whether the 5-HTTLPR polymorphism is associated with attentional biases for negative word stimuli. Methods: Unmedicated, young adults with low current depression and anxiety symptoms (N = 106) were genotyped for the 5-HTTLPR, including the single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) rs25531 in the long allele of the 5-HTTLPR. Participants then completed a standard dot-probe task that measured attentional bias toward anxiety, dysphoric, and self-esteem words. Results: The LALA allele group demonstrated an attentional bias away from negative word stimuli. This attentional bias was absent among the S/L-G carriers. Conclusions: These findings replicate previous work and suggest that 5-HTTLPR L-A homozygotes possess a protective attentional bias that may decrease susceptibility to depression and anxiety. Depression and Anxiety 27:746-751, 2010. (C) 2010 Wiley-Liss, Inc.