Oxytocin Receptor Gene Relates to Theory of Mind and Prosocial Behavior in Children

Journal of Cognition and Development

Volumn 16, Issue 2, 2015, Pages 302-313

  Wu, Nan ^a,b   Su, Yanjie ^a  

^a PEKING UNIVERSITY   (China)

^b BEIJING UNION UNIVERSITY   (China)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

OXYTOCIN RECEPTOR;

ARTICLE; CHILD; DNA EXTRACTION; FEMALE; GENE CONTROL; GENOTYPING TECHNIQUE; HAPLOTYPE; HUMAN; MALE; MEMORY CONSOLIDATION; NORMAL HUMAN; PRESCHOOL CHILD; RECOGNITION; SOCIAL BEHAVIOR; STATISTICAL ANALYSIS; TASK PERFORMANCE; THEORY OF MIND;

EID: 84929505039     PISSN: 15248372     EISSN: 15327647     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/15248372.2013.858042     Document Type: Article

References (37)

1. Bakermans-Kranenburg, M. J. & van Ijzendoorn, M. H. (2008). Oxytocin receptor (OXTR) and serotonin transporter (5-HTT) genes associated with observed parenting. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 3, 128–134.
2. Benenson, J. F., Pascoe, J. & Radmore, N. (2007). Children's altruistic behavior in the dictator game. Evolution and Human Behavior, 28, 168–175.
3. Caputi, M., Lecce, S., Pagnin, A. & Banerjee, R. (2012). Longitudinal effects of theory of mind on later peer relations: The role of prosocial behavior. Developmental Psychology, 48, 257–270.
4. Dunfield, K., Kuhlmeier, V. A., O'Connell, L. & Kelley, E. (2011). Examining the diversity of prosocial behavior: Helping, sharing, and comforting in infancy. Infancy, 16, 227–247.
5. Eley, T. C. (1997). General genes: A new theme in developmental psychopathology. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 6, 90–95.
6. Fehr, E. & Fischbacher, U. (2003). The nature of human altruism. Nature, 425, 785–791.
7. Goldstein, T. R. & Winner, E. (2012). Enhancing empathy and theory of mind. Journal of Cognition and Development, 13, 19–37.
8. Hamann, K., Warneken, F., Greenberg, J. R. & Tomasello, M. (2011). Collaboration encourages equal sharing in children but not in chimpanzees. Nature, 476, 328–331.
9. Haviland, W. A., Prins, H. E. L., Walrath, D. & McBride, B. (2004). Cultural anthropology (11th ed.). New York, NY: Wadsworth.
10. Hay, D. F. (1994). Prosocial development. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 35, 29–71.
11. Hogrefe, G. J., Wimmer, H. & Perner, J. (1986). Ignorance versus false belief: A developmental lag in attribution of epistemic states. Child Development, 57, 567–582.
12. Hughes, C., Jaffee, S. R., Taylor, A., Caspi, A. & Moffit, T. E. (2005). Origins of individual difference in theory of mind: From nature to nurture? Child Development, 76, 356–370.
13. Hughes, C. & Plomin, R. (2000). Individual differences in early understanding of mind: Genes, nonshared environment and modularity. In P. Carruthers & A. Chamberlain (Eds.), Evolution and the human mind: Language, modularity and social cognition (pp. 47–61). Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.
14. Knafo, A. & Israel, S. (2009). Genetic and environmental influences on prosocial behavior. In M. Mikulincer & P. R. Shaver (Eds.), Prosocial motives, emotions, and behavior: The better angels of our nature (pp. 149–167). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
15. Knafo, A., Israel, S. & Ebstein, R. P. (2011). Heritability of children's prosocial behavior and differential susceptibility to parenting by variation in the dopamine receptor D4 gene. Development and Psychopathology, 23, 53–67.
16. Knafo, A. & Plomin, R. (2006). Prosocial behavior from early to middle childhood: Genetic and environmental influences on stability and change. Developmental Psychology, 42, 771–786.
17. Kogan, A., Saslow, L. R., Impett, E. A., Oveis, C., Keltner, D. & Saturn, S. R. (2011). Thin-slicing study of the oxytocin receptor (OXTR) gene and the evaluation and expression of the prosocial disposition. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 108, 19189–19192.
18. Krueger, F., Parasuraman, R., Iyengar, V., Thornburg, M., Weel, J., Lin, M., & Lipsky, R. H. (2012). Oxytocin receptor genetic variation promotes human trust behavior. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 6, 4. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3270329
19. Lackner, C., Sabbagh, M. A., Hallinan, E., Liu, X. D. & Holden, J. J. A. (2012). Dopamine receptor D4 gene variation predicts preschoolers’ developing theory of mind. Developmental Science, 15, 272–280.
20. Liu, D., Wellman, H. M., Tardif, T. & Sabbagh, M. (2008). Theory of mind development in Chinese children: A meta-analysis of false-belief understanding across cultures and languages. Developmental Psychology, 44, 523–531. http://pages.ucsd.edu/~davidliu/papers/LiuWellmanTardif2008.pdf
21. Lucht, M. J., Barnow, S., Sonnenfeld, C., Rosenberger, A., Grabe, H. J., Schroeder, W., & Rosskopf, D. (2009). Associations between the oxytocin receptor gene (OXTR) and affect, loneliness and intelligence in normal subjects. Progress in Neuro-Psychopharmacology & Biological Psychiatry, 33, 860–866.
22. Lucht, M. J., Barnow, S., Sonnenfeld, C., Ulrich, I., Grabe, H. J., Schroeder, W., & Rosskopf, D. (2013). Associations between the oxytocin receptor gene (OXTR) and ‘mind-reading’ in humans: An exploratory study. Nordic Journal of Psychiatry, 67, 15–21.
23. Moore, C., Barresi, J. & Thompson, C. (1998). The cognitive basis of future-oriented prosocial behavior. Social Development, 7, 198–218.
24. Poulin, M. J., Holman, E. A. & Buffone, A. (2012). The neurogenetics of nice: Receptor genes for oxytocin and vasopressin interact with threat to predict prosocial behavior. Psychological Science, 23, 446–452.
25. Premack, D. & Woodruff, G. (1978). Does the chimpanzee have a theory of mind? The Behavior and Brain Sciences, 4, 515–526.
26. Riem, M. M. E., Pieper, S., Out, D., Bakermans-Kranenburg, M. J. & van Ijzendoorn, M. H. (2011). Oxytocin receptor gene and depressive symptoms associated with physiological reactivity to infant crying. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 6, 294–300.
27. Rodrigues, S. M., Saslow, L. R., Garcia, N., John, O. P. & Keltner, D. (2009). Oxytocin receptor genetic variation relates to empathy and stress reactivity in humans. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 106, 21437–21441.
28. Rushton, J. P. (2004). Genetic and environmental contributions to pro-social attitudes: A twin study of social responsibility. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London: Series B. Biological Sciences, 271, 2583–2585. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15615684
29. Tost, H., Kolachana, B., Hakimi, S., Lemaitre, H., Verchinski, B. A., Mattay, V. S., & Meyer-Lindenberg, A. (2010). A common allele in the oxytocin receptor gene (OXTR) impacts prosocial temperament and human hypothalamic-limbic structure and function. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 107, 13936–13941.
30. Warneken, F. & Tomasello, M. (2006). Altruistic helping in human infants and young chimpanzees. Science, 311, 1301–1303.
31. Warneken, F. & Tomasello, M. (2009). The roots of human altruism. British Journal of Psychology, 100, 455–471.
32. Wimmer, H. & Perner, J. (1983). Beliefs about beliefs: Representation and constraining function of wrong beliefs in young children's understanding of deception. Cognition, 13, 103–128.
33. Wu, N., Li, Z. & Su, Y. J. (2012). The association between oxytocin receptor gene polymorphism (OXTR) and trait empathy. Journal of Affective Disorders, 138, 468–472.
34. Wu, S., Jia, M., Ruan, Y., Liu, J., Guo, Y., Shuang, M., Gong, X., & Zhang, D. (2005). Positive association of the oxytocin receptor gene (OXTR) with autism in the Chinese Han population. Biological Psychiatry, 58(1), 74–77.
35. Xia, H. W., Wu, N. & Su, Y. J. (2012). Investigating the genetic basis of theory of mind (ToM): The role of catechol-o-methyltransferase (COMT) gene polymorphisms. PLoS ONE, 7, e49768.
36. Zahn-Waxler, C., Radke-Yarrow, M., Wagner, E. & Chapman, M. (1992). Development of concern for others. Developmental Psychology, 28, 126–136.
37. Zhang, Y., Haraksingh, R., Grubert, F., Abyzov, A., Gerstein, M., Weissman, S. & Urban, A. E. (2013). Child development and structural variation in the human genome. Child Development, 84, 34–48.