Sensitivity in detecting facial displays of emotion: Impact of maternal depression and oxytocin receptor genotype

Abstract

The current study examined sensitivity in detecting emotional faces among children of depressed and non-depressed mothers. A second goal was to examine the potential moderating role of the oxytocin receptor gene (OXTR rs53576), which has been linked to emotion recognition in the past. Participants included 247 children (ages 8–14). Children completed a forced choice emotion identification task. Maternal history of major depressive disorder during children's lives was associated with children's sensitivity in detecting emotional faces among children homozygous for the OXTR rs53576 G allele, but not among carriers of the A allele. Among G homozygotes, children of depressed mothers exhibited increased sensitivity in detecting sad faces, and reduced sensitivity in detecting happiness, compared to children of non-depressed mothers.

Keywords:

• Maternal depression
• Oxytocin receptor gene
• Information-processing
• Intergenerational transmission
• Vulnerability

Acknowledgements

The views expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the position or policy of the National Institutes of Health or the Department of Veterans Affairs. We would like to thank Ashley Johnson, Lindsey Stone, Andrea Hanley, Sydney Meadows, Michael Van Wie and Devra Alper for their help in conducting assessments for this project, and Kayla Beaucage for her help with genotyping.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

¹ Although the current study focused solely on emotions rated as neutral or the target emotion, it should be noted that the pattern of findings was identical when including all emotional responses.

² The full ANOVA findings were also maintained when including the influence of children's lifetime history and current symptoms of depression and mothers’ current depression.

Additional information

Funding

This project was supported by National Institute of Child Health and Human Development [grant number HD057066] and National Institute of Mental Health [grant number MH098060] awarded to B. E. Gibb, and 1S10RR023457-01A1 and Shared equipment grants (ShEEP) from the Medical Research Service of the Department of Veteran Affairs awarded to J. E. McGeary.