Genetic and neural correlates of social behavior: the role of Oxytocin.

社会行为的生物学基础以及对社会刺激的处理已经得到了广泛的研究。在这种情况下，肽激素催产素的重要作用已反复显示，即。by means手段of molecular-genetic分子-genetic遗传association关联studies研究. 催产素受体基因rs 53576的一种多态性提供了特别有希望的结果。然而，单独分析催产素受体仅仅提供了催产素系统的突触后反应性的信息，而没有提供关于催产素释放的信息。然而，在基因x基因相互作用研究的框架内，这两种信息的结合将提供一个更完整的洞察力，以遗传决定的催产素系统的净活性作为一个整体，以及它对感知和行为的影响。CD 38调节催产素的释放。在人类受试者中的研究表明，CD 38基因的遗传变异与社会行为、自闭症以及CD 38的基础表达率相关。在此背景下，单核苷酸多态性rs3796863似乎是一个特别萌芽的候选者。这两个遗传标记的联合分析似乎是一个有前途的方法来定位净催产素系统的活动。这项研究试图使用这样的组合分析，以进一步阐明催产素系统的活动对社会能力（自我报告）以及社会刺激（功能磁共振成像）的处理神经相关的影响。此外，基础CD 38表达率将首次与健康受试者的社会能力倾向的个体间差异相关。

The biological basis of social behavior as well as of the processing of social stimuli have been studied widely. In this context an important role of the peptide hormone oxytocin has been shown repeatedly, i.a. by means of molecular-genetic associationstudies. One polymorphism in the oxytocin receptor gene, the rs53576, has provided especially promising results. Analyzing the oxytocin receptor alone, however, merely gives information on postsynaptic reactivity of the oxytocin-system without providing information regarding the release of oxytocin. A combination of both informationswithin the frame of gene x gene-interaction studies, however, would provide a far more complete insight into the genetically determined net-activity of the oxytocin-system as a whole as well as its effects on perception and behavior. CD38 regulates the release of oxytocin. Studies in human subjects have shown genetic variations of the CD38 gene to be associated with social behavior, autism as well as basal expression rates of CD38. In this context the single-nucleotide-polymorphism rs3796863 appears to be an especially budding candidate.A combined analysis of both genetic markers appears to be a promising approach to map the net-oxytocin-system activity. The study at hand attempts to use such a combined analysis to further elucidate the effects of the oxytocin-system activity on social aptitude (self-reports) as well as neural correlates of the processing of social stimuli (fMRI). Additionally, the basal CD38 expression-rate will be related to interindividual differences in social aptitude in healthy subjects for the first time.