Highs \(\it and\) lows

  • Why people differ in their susceptibility to external events is essential to our understanding of personality, human development, and mental disorders. Genes explain a substantial portion of these differences. Specifically, genes influencing the serotonin system are hypothesized to be \(\textit {differential susceptibility}\) factors, determining a person's reactivity to both positive \(\it and\) negative environments. We tested whether genetic variation in the serotonin transporter \(\textit {(5-HTTLPR)}\) is a differential susceptibility factor for daily events. Participants (\(\it N\) = 326, 77% female, mean age = 25, range = 17–36) completed smartphone questionnaires four times a day over four to five days, measuring stressors, uplifts, positive and negative affect. Affect was predicted from environment valence in the previous hour on a within-person level using three-level autoregressive linear mixed models. The \(\textit {5-HTTLPR}\) fulfilled all criteria of a differential susceptibility factor: Positive affect in carriers of the short allele (S) was less reactive to both uplifts and stressors, compared to homozygous carriers of the long allele (L/L). This pattern might reflect relative affective inflexibility in S-allele carriers. Our study provides insight into the serotonin system’s general role in susceptibility and highlights the need to assess the whole spectrum of naturalistic experiences.

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Metadaten
Author:Maurizio Leonardo SicorelloORCiDGND, Linda DieckmannGND, Dirk MoserORCiDGND, Vanessa LuxGND, Maike LuhmannORCiDGND, Andreas B. NeubauerORCiDGND, Wolff SchlotzGND, Robert KumstaORCiDGND
URN:urn:nbn:de:hbz:294-76879
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0237001
Parent Title (English):PLoS ONE
Subtitle (English):genetic susceptibility to daily events
Publisher:Public Library of Science
Place of publication:San Francisco
Document Type:Article
Language:English
Date of Publication (online):2020/11/30
Date of first Publication:2020/08/13
Publishing Institution:Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Universitätsbibliothek
Tag:Open Access Fonds
Volume:15
Issue:8, Article e0237001
First Page:e0237001-1
Last Page:e0237001-17
Note:
Article Processing Charge funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) and the Open Access Publication Fund of Ruhr-Universität Bochum.
Institutes/Facilities:Lehrstuhl Psychologische Methodenlehre
Research Department of Neuroscience
Fakultät für Psychologie, Lehrstuhl für Genetische Psychologie
open_access (DINI-Set):open_access
faculties:Fakultät für Psychologie
Licence (English):License LogoCreative Commons - CC BY 4.0 - Attribution 4.0 International