Highs and lows: Genetic susceptibility to daily events

Maurizio Sicorello, Linda Dieckmann, Dirk Moser, Vanessa Lux, Maike Luhmann, Andreas B Neubauer, Wolff Schlotz and Robert Kumsta

PLOS ONE, 2020, vol. 15, issue 8, 1-17

Abstract: Why people differ in their susceptibility to external events is essential to our understanding of personality, human development, and mental disorders. Genes explain a substantial portion of these differences. Specifically, genes influencing the serotonin system are hypothesized to be differential susceptibility factors, determining a person’s reactivity to both positive and negative environments. We tested whether genetic variation in the serotonin transporter (5-HTTLPR) is a differential susceptibility factor for daily events. Participants (N = 326, 77% female, mean age = 25, range = 17–36) completed smartphone questionnaires four times a day over four to five days, measuring stressors, uplifts, positive and negative affect. Affect was predicted from environment valence in the previous hour on a within-person level using three-level autoregressive linear mixed models. The 5-HTTLPR fulfilled all criteria of a differential susceptibility factor: Positive affect in carriers of the short allele (S) was less reactive to both uplifts and stressors, compared to homozygous carriers of the long allele (L/L). This pattern might reflect relative affective inflexibility in S-allele carriers. Our study provides insight into the serotonin system’s general role in susceptibility and highlights the need to assess the whole spectrum of naturalistic experiences.

Date: 2020
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:plo:pone00:0237001

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0237001

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