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Gene × Environment contributions to autonomic stress reactivity in youth

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 December 2017

Andrea G. Allegrini
Affiliation:
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
Brittany E. Evans
Affiliation:
Radboud University
Susanne de Rooij
Affiliation:
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam Academic Medical Center of the University of Amsterdam
Kirstin Greaves-Lord
Affiliation:
Erasmus University Medical Center
Anja C. Huizink*
Affiliation:
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
*
Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Anja C. Huizink, Sections of Clinical Developmental Psychology and Clinical Child and Family Studies, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Van der Boechorststraat 1, 1081 BT Amsterdam, The Netherlands; E-mail: a.c.huizink@vu.nl.

Abstract

Dysregulated physiological stress reactivity has been suggested to impact the development of children and adolescents with important health consequences throughout the life span. Both environmental adversity and genetic predispositions can lead to physiological imbalances in stress systems, which in turn lead to developmental differences. We investigated genetic and environmental contributions to autonomic nervous system reactivity to a psychosocial stressor. Furthermore, we tested whether these effects were consistent with the differential susceptibility framework. Composite measures of adverse life events combined with socioeconomic status were constructed. Effects of these adversity scores in interaction with a polygenic score summarizing six genetic variants, which were hypothesized to work as susceptibility factors, were tested on autonomic nervous system measures as indexed by heart rate and heart rate variability. Results showed that carriers of more genetic variants and exposed to high adversity manifested enhanced heart rate variability reactivity to a psychosocial stressor compared to carriers of fewer genetic variants. Conversely, the stress procedure elicited a more moderate response in these individuals compared to carriers of fewer variants when adversity was low.

Type
Regular Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2017 

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Footnotes

The Youth Research in The Netherlands (JOiN) study was conducted by the Erasmus University Medical Center, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry/Psychology. We are grateful to all participants and their parents. We also thank Olga Husson for her assistance in data collection. The JOiN study was financially supported by ZonMW Grant 3116.0002 and ERAB Grant 0609.

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