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Description
The oxytocin receptor gene (OXTR) plays a crucial role in social behavior and emotion regulation. Methylation of OXTR (OXTRm) reduces receptor expression and has been associated with individual differences in socio-emotional behavior and neural maturity (Skyberg et al., 2023). This study investigates the relationship between neural maturity and OXTRm trajectories in children aged 4-13 years. We assessed the neural maturity of 68 children by examining the structural and functional connectivity between the amygdala and medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), a well-established neural substrate for emotion regulation (Phelps et al., 2005). This connectivity typically shifts from positive functional coupling in childhood to negative coupling in adolescence (Gee et al., 2013). Linear growth curves were modeled for OXTRm values across three or four time points. Preliminary results indicated that children with more mature neural profiles—characterized by lower functional connectivity and higher streamline counts between the right amygdala and left frontal cortex, after controlling for sex, age, and brain volume—exhibited steeper increases in OXTRm over time. These findings suggest that children with more adult-like amygdala-mPFC connectivity experience greater increases in OXTRm, potentially reducing the efficiency of oxytocin signaling. Future research will explore how these OXTRm trajectories interact with socioemotional development in children.
