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. 2013 Jul 8;8(7):e68377.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0068377. Print 2013.

Emotional voice processing: investigating the role of genetic variation in the serotonin transporter across development

Tobias Grossmann  1 , Amrisha Vaish, Janett Franz, Roland Schroeder, Mark Stoneking, Angela D Friederici
Affiliations

Emotional voice processing: investigating the role of genetic variation in the serotonin transporter across development

Tobias Grossmann et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

The ability to effectively respond to emotional information carried in the human voice plays a pivotal role for social interactions. We examined how genetic factors, especially the serotonin transporter genetic variation (5-HTTLPR), affect the neurodynamics of emotional voice processing in infants and adults by measuring event-related brain potentials (ERPs). The results revealed that infants distinguish between emotions during an early perceptual processing stage, whereas adults recognize and evaluate the meaning of emotions during later semantic processing stages. While infants do discriminate between emotions, only in adults was genetic variation associated with neurophysiological differences in how positive and negative emotions are processed in the brain. This suggests that genetic association with neurocognitive functions emerges during development, emphasizing the role that variation in serotonin plays in the maturation of brain systems involved in emotion recognition.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. This figure shows the grand-average of the ERP responses to happy (blue) and angry (red) tone of voice at frontal and central electrodes in adults.
(A) The graph (B) on the right side shows the mean amplitude of the ERP response to happy (blue) and angry (red) voices between 400 and 600 ms according to the genotype groups.
Figure 2
Figure 2. This figure shows the grand-average of the ERP responses to happy (blue) and angry (red) tone of voice at frontal and central electrodes in infants.
(A) The graph (B) on the right side shows the mean amplitude of the ERP response to happy (blue) and angry (red) voices between 350 and 450 ms according to the genotype groups.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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