FKBP5 Modulates Attention Bias for Threat: Associations with Hippocampal Function and Morphology
Fani, Negar ; Gutman, David ; Tone, Erin ; Almli, Lynn ; Mercer, Kristina B. ; Davis, Jennifer ; Glover, Ebony ; Jovanovic, Tanja ; Bradley, Bekh ; Dinov, Ivo D. ... show 4 more
Citations
Abstract
Context: The FKBP5 gene product regulates glucocorticoid receptor (GR) sensitivity and hypothalamicpituitary‐adrenal axis functioning, and has been associated with a number of stress‐related psychiatric disorders. The study of intermediate phenotypes, such as emotion‐processing biases and their neural substrates, provides a way to clarify the mechanisms by which FKBP5 dysregulation mediates psychopathology risk. Objective: To examine whether allelic variations for a putatively functional SNP associated with FKBP5 gene regulation (rs1360780) would relate differentially to attentional bias for threat; this was measured through behavioral response on a dot probe task and hippocampal activation during task performance. Morphological substrates of differential hippocampal response were also measured. Design: Cross-sectional study examining associations between genotype, behavioral response and neural response (using fMRI) on the dot probe; Voxel-based morphometry (VBM), global and local shape analyses were used to measure structural differences in hippocampi between genotype groups.
