TY  - JOUR
A1  - Holz, Nathalie
A1  - Boecker-Schlier, Regina
A1  - Buchmann, Arlette F.
A1  - Blomeyer, Dorothea
A1  - Baumeister, Sarah
A1  - Hohmann, Sarah
A1  - Jennen-Steinmetz, Christine
A1  - Wolf, Isabella
A1  - Rietschel, Marcella
A1  - Witt, Stephanie H.
A1  - Plichta, Michael M.
A1  - Meyer-Lindenberg, Andreas
A1  - Schmidt, Martin H.
A1  - Esser, Günter
A1  - Banaschewski, Tobias
A1  - Brandeis, Daniel
A1  - Laucht, Manfred
T1  - Evidence for a Sex-Dependent MAOAx Childhood Stress Interaction in the Neural Circuitry of Aggression
JF  - Cerebral cortex
N2  - Converging evidence emphasizes the role of an interaction between monoamine oxidase A (MAOA) genotype, environmental adversity, and sex in the pathophysiology of aggression. The present study aimed to clarify the impact of this interaction on neural activity in aggression-related brain systems. Functional magnetic resonance imaging was performed in 125 healthy adults from a high-risk community sample followed since birth. DNA was genotyped for the MAOA-VNTR (variable number of tandem repeats). Exposure to childhood life stress (CLS) between the ages of 4 and 11 years was assessed using a standardized parent interview, aggression by the Youth/Young Adult Self-Report between the ages of 15 and 25 years, and the VIRA-R (Vragenlijst Instrumentele En Reactieve Agressie) at the age of 15 years. Significant interactions were obtained between MAOA genotype, CLS, and sex relating to amygdala, hippocampus, and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) response, respectively. Activity in the amygdala and hippocampus during emotional face-matching increased with the level of CLS in male MAOA-L, while decreasing in male MAOA-H, with the reverse pattern present in females. Findings in the opposite direction in the ACC during a flanker NoGo task suggested that increased emotional activity coincided with decreased inhibitory control. Moreover, increasing amygdala activity was associated with higher Y(A)SR aggression in male MAOA-L and female MAOA-H carriers. Likewise, a significant association between amygdala activity and reactive aggression was detected in female MAOA-H carriers. The results point to a moderating role of sex in the MAOAx CLS interaction for intermediate phenotypes of emotional and inhibitory processing, suggesting a possible mechanism in conferring susceptibility to violence-related disorders.
KW  - aggression
KW  - amygdala
KW  - fMRI
KW  - life stress
KW  - MAOA
Y1  - 2016
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhu249
SN  - 1047-3211
SN  - 1460-2199
VL  - 26
SP  - 904
EP  - 914
PB  - Oxford Univ. Press
CY  - Cary
ER  -