Affective Neural Responses Modulated by Serotonin Transporter Genotype in Clinical Anxiety and Depression
Fig 2
5-HTTLPR genotype effects on anterior insula activation differentiate patients and healthy comparison subjects.
A) Patients with at least one S or LG allele (n = 36) showed less anterior insula activation than patients with two LA alleles (n = 14). This Group x Genotype effect of 5-HTTLPR was observed in anterior insula a priori regions of interest (inset) across aversive and neutral valences in anticipation of and response to affective pictures. B) A confirmatory finding in patients (n = 50) indicated a positive association between the number of LA alleles of the serotonin transporter gene and bilateral activation in anterior insula a priori region of interest (inset). C) A voxelwise regression for patients indicated a positive association between LA allele number and bilateral anterior insula activation (inset) at p<0.05, corrected. Y-axes display mean percent signal change averaged over displayed ROIs/clusters. Asterisks on the bar graph indicate significant differences at p<0.05. Y-values on axial images indicate Tailarach and Tournoux coordinates for the AFNI MNI-152 brain used for normalizing. Error bars are mean standard errors.