ArticleDevelopmental cognitive neuroscience2019
Epigenetic modification of the oxytocin receptor gene is associated with emotion processing in the infant brain.
Article in Developmental cognitive neuroscience, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 43 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
43 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 77 citations in OpenAlex.
- A systematic review of studies that used NIRS to measure neural activation during emotion processing in healthy individuals.Social cognitive and affective neuroscience · 2021Pooled it
- Chronic oxytocin administration stimulates the oxytocinergic system in children with autism.Nature communications · 2024Trial
- An epigenetic framework for understanding contextual influences on neural and socio-emotional development: Narrative review and case-study of the oxytocin receptor.Developmental cognitive neuroscience · 2026Review
- Exploring the relationship betweenFrontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- Parental behavior, adult attachment, and DNA methylation of the MT2 oxytocin receptor gene region - The moderating role of neuroticism.PloS one · 2026Article
- Epigenetics, Resilience, Protective Factors and Factors Promoting Positive Outcomes: A Scoping Review.International journal of developmental neuroscience : the official journal of the International Society for Developmental Neuroscience · 2025Article
- Social Smiling and Laughter Are Linked to Enhanced Functional Brain Connectivity in Young Infants' Default Mode Network.Developmental psychobiology · 2025Article
- The association between temperament and polygenic score for psychopathology from infancy to middle childhood.Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines · 2025Article
- Interplay of plasma Oxytocin and oxytocin receptor gene methylation levels on empathy in older adults.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- The impact of the early environment on oxytocin receptor epigenetics and potential therapeutic implications.Pediatric research · 2025Review
- The clinical use of epigenetics in psychiatry: a narrative review of epigenetic mechanisms, key candidate genes, and precision psychiatry.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2025Review
- Critical Windows: Exploring the Association Between Perinatal Trauma, Epigenetics, and Chronic Pain.The Neuroscientist : a review journal bringing neurobiology, neurology and psychiatry · 2024Review
- Epigenetic regulation of the oxytocin system as an indicator of adaptation to over-controlling parenting and psychosocial functioning in adulthood.Psychoneuroendocrinology · 2024Article
- Dorso-medial prefrontal cortex responses to social smiles predict sociability in early human development.Imaging neuroscience (Cambridge, Mass.) · 2024Article
- Wonder symphony: epigenetics and the enchantment of the arts.Environmental epigenetics · 2024Review
- Epigenetic modification of the oxytocin receptor gene is associated with child-parent neural synchrony during competition.Developmental cognitive neuroscience · 2023Article
- Endogenous oxytocin levels in children with autism: Associations with cortisol levels and oxytocin receptor gene methylation.Translational psychiatry · 2023Article
- Identification of biopsychological trait markers in functional neurological disorders.Brain : a journal of neurology · 2023Article
- An epigenetic mechanism for differential maturation of amygdala-prefrontal connectivity in childhood socio-emotional development.Translational psychiatry · 2023Article
- Oxytocin receptor DNA methylation is associated with exogenous oxytocin needs during parturition and postpartum hemorrhage.Communications medicine · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 1 institution in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
The neural capacity to discriminate between emotions emerges early in development, though little is known about specific factors that contribute to variability in this vital skill during infancy. In adults, DNA methylation of the oxytocin receptor gene (OXTRm) is an epigenetic modification that is variable, predictive of gene expression, and has been linked to autism spectrum disorder and the neural response to social cues. It is unknown whether OXTRm is variable in infants, and whether it is predictive of early social function. Implementing a developmental neuroimaging epigenetics approach in a large sample of infants (N = 98), we examined whether OXTRm is associated with neural responses to emotional expressions. OXTRm was assessed at 5 months of age. At 7 months of age, infants viewed happy, angry, and fearful faces while functional near-infrared spectroscopy was recorded. We observed that OXTRm shows considerable variability among infants. Critically, infants with higher OXTRm show enhanced responses to anger and fear and attenuated responses to happiness in right inferior frontal cortex, a region implicated in emotion processing through action-perception coupling. Findings support models emphasizing oxytocin's role in modulating neural response to emotion and identify OXTRm as an epigenetic mark contributing to early brain function.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.