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GENES UNDERLIE HAPPINESS: UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH STUDY SHOWS GENETIC DETERMINANTS OF OPTIMISTIC PERSONALITIES | |
| Contact: Maria E. Bleil Phone: 412-624-8828 Email: bbleil@pitt.edu Embargoed until: March 4, 2004 |
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Orlando, FL - Research confirms common notions that optimistic people lead healthier lives, both physically and psychologically. The extent to which one is either an optimist or a pessimist is also known to have a partial basis in heredity. Now researchers report finding a specific gene that may be associated with individual differences in optimism. In a study conducted by Maria Bleil, a predoctoral fellow, and collaborators at the University of Pittsburgh, the "power of positive thinking" was examined in relation to a gene involved with the neurotransmitter serotonin, a brain chemical that influences a variety of psychological traits that could be associated with optimistic or pessimistic outlooks on life. Results of this study were presented at the American Psychosomatic Society Annual Meeting, held in Orlando, Florida on March 3-6. Reduced brain serotonin has been related to a host of negative personality traits, including tendencies toward anger, impulsivity, and anxiety. Genes of the serotonin system determine how much serotonin is available and the ways serotonin acts in the brain. The gene studied in this investigation provides a genetic recipe by which the body produces the so-called serotonin "transporter", a molecular pump in nerve cells that regulates the amount of serotonin active in the brain. One portion of this gene has two different forms, or versions, which are labeled its "short" and "long" variants. Because everyone inherits two copies of the gene, one from their mother and one from their father, all of us have either two copies of the short variant, two copies of the long variant, or one of each. Using a standard personality questionnaire to assess optimism in a group of 382 adult twins from the Pittsburgh Twin Study, the researchers found that individuals who inherit one long and one short version of the serotonin transporter gene tend to be less optimistic than people with two identical copies of either variant. Although this is the first study showing that variation in a specific gene may be related to optimism, Ms. Bleil cautions that numerous factors, including both our individual experiences and other genes, contribute to complex personality traits like optimism. And ultimately, all of these different factors will need to be accounted for in any full understanding of why some people are optimists and others pessimists. Still, the genetic component cannot be properly addressed until the critical genes have been identified, and this study takes a first important step in that direction. Ms. Bleil's collaborators at the University of Pittsburgh include Drs. Stephen Manuck, Michael Pogue-Geile, Robert Ferrell, and Jeanne McCaffery. This research was supported by a grant to Dr. Manuck from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. | |
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Psychosomatic Medicine is the official peer-reviewed journal of the American Psychosomatic Society, published bimonthly. For information about the journal, contact Vicki White, Managing Editor for Manuscript Production,
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