2-136 - Emerging Research in Developmental Neurogenetics: Novel Insights into Intermediate Neural Phenotypes of Affective Dysregulation

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

Important strides have been made in developmental psychology through the use of neurobiological methods, such as neuroimaging or genetic sampling. However, previous investigations have typically only looked at one aspect of neurobiology in isolation, which limits full characterization of the phenotypes and underlying mechanisms related to individual differences in behavior. The field of neurogenetics has attempted to overcome this by integrating genetics, neuroscience, psychology, and psychiatry, with the explicit aim of connecting genetic variation to behavioral outcomes via intermediate biological phenotypes.

In this symposium, we bring together three leading scientists in this area to present recent empirical work examining how genetic variation is related to individual differences in neural reactivity to reward and emotion. Each presentation will then demonstrate how such intermediate biological phenotypes are linked to different aspects of affective dysregulation in adolescence and emerging adulthood. The first paper links a multi-locus genetic profile of smoking risk to individual differences in neural reward reactivity in order to understand the developmental antecedents of addiction. The second paper dissects subtypes of antisocial behavior by examining neural reactivity to emotional stimuli and specific polymorphisms of the oxytocin receptor system. The third paper connects a multi-locus genetic profile related to stress physiology to developmental risk for major depression via individual differences in emotion neural reactivity. The discussant, a prominent researcher who has focused on gene-by-environment interactions and differential susceptibility to environmental influences, will provide an integrative summary of these papers and highlight future directions for this research area.

Sub Unit

• Biological Processes

Chair

• Jamie L Hanson, Duke University

Discussant

• Jay Belsky, University of California, Davis

Individual Presentations

• An imaging-genetics approach to understanding antisocial behavior and callous-unemotional traits during emerging adulthood - Presenting Author: Rebecca Waller, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; Ahmad Hariri, Duke University; Luke W. Hyde, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

• Genetic variation in the HPA axis predicts stress-related amygdala function: Implications for transdiagnostic psychopathology - Presenting Author: Christina Di Iorio, Washington University in St. Louis; Emily Drabant Conley, 23andMe; Ahmad Hariri, Duke University; Ryan Bogdan, Washington University in St. Louis

• Polygenic Risk and Intermediate Neural Phenotypes: Focusing on Neural Reward Reactivity To Understand Cigarette Smoking - Presenting Author: Jamie L Hanson, Duke University; Daniel Belsky, Duke University; Douglas Williamson, University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio; Ahmad Hariri, Duke University