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The gene environment aetiology of freezing and its relationship with internalizing symptoms during adolescence

BACKGROUND: The freezing response is a universal response to threat, linked to attentive immobility and action preparation. It is relevant for acute stress coping in animals and humans, and subtle deviations in toddler freezing duration (absence of, or excessively long reactions) have been linked to...

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Autores principales: Held, Leslie K., Vink, Jacqueline M., Vitaro, Frank, Brendgen, Mara, Dionne, Ginette, Provost, Lysandre, Boivin, Michel, Ouellet-Morin, Isabelle, Roelofs, Karin
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Elsevier 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9194596/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35696830
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ebiom.2022.104094
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author Held, Leslie K.
Vink, Jacqueline M.
Vitaro, Frank
Brendgen, Mara
Dionne, Ginette
Provost, Lysandre
Boivin, Michel
Ouellet-Morin, Isabelle
Roelofs, Karin
author_facet Held, Leslie K.
Vink, Jacqueline M.
Vitaro, Frank
Brendgen, Mara
Dionne, Ginette
Provost, Lysandre
Boivin, Michel
Ouellet-Morin, Isabelle
Roelofs, Karin
author_sort Held, Leslie K.
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: The freezing response is a universal response to threat, linked to attentive immobility and action preparation. It is relevant for acute stress coping in animals and humans, and subtle deviations in toddler freezing duration (absence of, or excessively long reactions) have been linked to higher risk for internalizing symptoms in adolescence. Yet, while individual freezing tendencies are relatively stable throughout life, little is known about their gene-environment aetiology. METHODS: We investigated the heritability of toddler freezing in the Quebec Newborn Twin Study (QNTS; n=508 twins) by fitting behavioural genetic models to video-coded freezing responses during a robot confrontation. Furthermore, we examined the predictive associations between toddler freezing and internalizing symptoms (anxiety and depressive symptoms), as they unfold during adolescence (ages 12–19 years) using linear mixed-effects models. FINDINGS: Freezing was found to be moderately heritable (45% of the variance accounted for by genetic factors). The remaining variance was explained by unique environmental factors, including measurement error. No significant contribution of shared environmental factors was noted. Additionally, shorter freezing was associated with more internalizing symptoms in adolescence at trend level, a pattern that was significant for depressive but not anxiety symptoms. INTERPRETATION: Freezing is an adaptive coping mechanism in early childhood, which is partly driven by genetic factors. Crucially, the absence or shorter duration of these behaviours may signal vulnerability to depressive problems later in life. FUNDING: Canadian Institutes of Health Research and Research Fund of Quebec–Health and Society and Culture. Consolidator grant from the European Research Council (ERC_CoG-2017_772337).
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spelling pubmed-91945962022-06-22 The gene environment aetiology of freezing and its relationship with internalizing symptoms during adolescence Held, Leslie K. Vink, Jacqueline M. Vitaro, Frank Brendgen, Mara Dionne, Ginette Provost, Lysandre Boivin, Michel Ouellet-Morin, Isabelle Roelofs, Karin eBioMedicine Articles BACKGROUND: The freezing response is a universal response to threat, linked to attentive immobility and action preparation. It is relevant for acute stress coping in animals and humans, and subtle deviations in toddler freezing duration (absence of, or excessively long reactions) have been linked to higher risk for internalizing symptoms in adolescence. Yet, while individual freezing tendencies are relatively stable throughout life, little is known about their gene-environment aetiology. METHODS: We investigated the heritability of toddler freezing in the Quebec Newborn Twin Study (QNTS; n=508 twins) by fitting behavioural genetic models to video-coded freezing responses during a robot confrontation. Furthermore, we examined the predictive associations between toddler freezing and internalizing symptoms (anxiety and depressive symptoms), as they unfold during adolescence (ages 12–19 years) using linear mixed-effects models. FINDINGS: Freezing was found to be moderately heritable (45% of the variance accounted for by genetic factors). The remaining variance was explained by unique environmental factors, including measurement error. No significant contribution of shared environmental factors was noted. Additionally, shorter freezing was associated with more internalizing symptoms in adolescence at trend level, a pattern that was significant for depressive but not anxiety symptoms. INTERPRETATION: Freezing is an adaptive coping mechanism in early childhood, which is partly driven by genetic factors. Crucially, the absence or shorter duration of these behaviours may signal vulnerability to depressive problems later in life. FUNDING: Canadian Institutes of Health Research and Research Fund of Quebec–Health and Society and Culture. Consolidator grant from the European Research Council (ERC_CoG-2017_772337). Elsevier 2022-06-10 /pmc/articles/PMC9194596/ /pubmed/35696830 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ebiom.2022.104094 Text en © 2022 The Author(s) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
spellingShingle Articles
Held, Leslie K.
Vink, Jacqueline M.
Vitaro, Frank
Brendgen, Mara
Dionne, Ginette
Provost, Lysandre
Boivin, Michel
Ouellet-Morin, Isabelle
Roelofs, Karin
The gene environment aetiology of freezing and its relationship with internalizing symptoms during adolescence
title The gene environment aetiology of freezing and its relationship with internalizing symptoms during adolescence
title_full The gene environment aetiology of freezing and its relationship with internalizing symptoms during adolescence
title_fullStr The gene environment aetiology of freezing and its relationship with internalizing symptoms during adolescence
title_full_unstemmed The gene environment aetiology of freezing and its relationship with internalizing symptoms during adolescence
title_short The gene environment aetiology of freezing and its relationship with internalizing symptoms during adolescence
title_sort gene environment aetiology of freezing and its relationship with internalizing symptoms during adolescence
topic Articles
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9194596/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35696830
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ebiom.2022.104094
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