Vasopressin, and not oxytocin, receptor gene methylation is associated with individual differences in receptive joint attention in chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes).
William D Hopkins, Nicky Staes, Elaine E Guevara and 3 others
PMID 36738470WHAT IT FOUND
In chimpanzees, lower methylation of the vasopressin receptor gene was associated with better receptive joint attention on one task, but not the other.
Oxytocin receptor methylation showed no such associations. These biological links were correlational and did not establish cause and effect.
Key findings
01Performance on the Dawson joint attention task was negatively correlated with methylation values of 8 CpG sites for the vasopressin receptor gene (AVPR1A).
02There were no significant correlations between performance on the joint attention tasks and methylation values for the oxytocin receptor gene (OXTR).
03The study was correlational, so it cannot determine whether methylation changes drive attention skills or vice versa.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they found
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What it does not show
The study involved chimpanzees, not humans, so findings cannot be directly applied to human clinical populations. The sample size was small (54 animals). Methylation was measured in blood, which may not reflect levels in the brain. The design was correlational, meaning it cannot prove that methylation changes cause differences in attention skills. Associations were inconsistent between the two different joint attention tasks.
Declared interests
The research was supported by the U.S. Government (Non-P.H.S.) and the National Institutes of Health (Extramural).
The easy way to misread this
Do not interpret these biological markers as evidence for human autism interventions. The study was conducted on chimpanzees, the associations were correlational rather than causal, and the results were inconsistent across different joint attention tasks.