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Kanarik M, Sakala K, Matrov D, Kaart T, Roy A, Ziegler GC, Veidebaum T, Lesch KP, Harro J. MAOA methylation is associated with impulsive and antisocial behaviour: dependence on allelic variation, family environment and diet. J Neural Transm (Vienna) 2024; 131:59-71. [PMID: 37507512 DOI: 10.1007/s00702-023-02675-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/17/2023] [Accepted: 07/19/2023] [Indexed: 07/30/2023]
Abstract
Congenital absence of monoamine oxidase A (MAO-A) activity predisposes to antisocial impulsive behaviour, and the MAOA uVNTR low-expressing genotype (MAOA-L) together with childhood maltreatment is associated with similar phenotypes in males. A possible explanation of how family environment may lead to such behaviour involves DNA methylation. We have assessed MAOA methylation and impulsive/antisocial behaviour in 121 males from the Estonian Children Personality Behaviour and Health Study. Of the 12 CpG sites measured, methylation levels at the locus designated CpG3 were significantly lower in subjects with antisocial behaviour involving police contact. CpG3 methylation was lower in subjects with alcohol use disorder by age 25, but only in MAOA-H genotype. No correlation between MAOA CpG3 methylation levels and adaptive impulsivity was found at age 15, but in MAOA-L genotype a positive correlation appeared by age 18. By age 25, this positive correlation was no longer observed in subjects with better family relationships but had increased further with experience of adversity within the family. MAOA CpG3 methylation had different developmental dynamics in relation to maladaptive impulsivity. At age 18, a positive correlation was observed in MAOA-L genotype with inferior family relationships and a negative correlation was found in MAOA-H with superior home environment; both of these associations had disappeared by age 25. CpG3 methylation was associated with dietary intake of several micronutrients, most notable was a negative correlation with the intake of zinc, but also with calcium, potassium and vitamin E; a positive correlation was found with intake of phosphorus. In conclusion, MAOA CpG3 methylation is related to both maladaptive and adaptive impulsivity in adolescence in MAOA-L males from adverse home environment. By young adulthood, this relationship with maladaptive impulsivity had disappeared but with adaptive impulsivity strengthened. Thus, MAOA CpG3 methylation may serve as a marker for adaptive developmental neuroplasticity in MAOA-L genotype. The mechanisms involved may include dietary factors.
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Affiliation(s)
- Margus Kanarik
- Division of Neuropsychopharmacology, Institute of Chemistry, Faculty of Science and Technology, University of Tartu, Ravila 14A Chemicum, 50411, Tartu, Estonia
| | - Katre Sakala
- National Institute for Health Development, Tallinn, Estonia
- School of Natural Sciences and Health, Tallinn University, Tallinn, Estonia
- Institute of Family Medicine and Public Health, University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia
| | - Denis Matrov
- Section on Behavioral Neuroscience, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA
| | - Tanel Kaart
- Institute of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science, Estonian University of Life Sciences, Tartu, Estonia
| | - Arunima Roy
- Division of Molecular Psychiatry, Center of Mental Health, University Hospital Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany
| | - Georg C Ziegler
- Division of Molecular Psychiatry, Center of Mental Health, University Hospital Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany
- Department of Psychiatry, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy, University Hospital Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany
| | | | - Klaus-Peter Lesch
- Division of Molecular Psychiatry, Center of Mental Health, University Hospital Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany
- Department of Psychiatry and Neuropsychology, School for Mental Health and Neuroscience (MHeNs), Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands
| | - Jaanus Harro
- Division of Neuropsychopharmacology, Institute of Chemistry, Faculty of Science and Technology, University of Tartu, Ravila 14A Chemicum, 50411, Tartu, Estonia.
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Mathew S. Turkana warriors' call to arms: how an egalitarian society mobilizes for cattle raids. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2022; 377:20210144. [PMID: 35369747 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2021.0144] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Humans are able to overcome coordination and collective action problems to mobilize for large-scale intergroup conflict even without formal hierarchical political institutions. To better understand how people rally together for warfare, I examine how the politically decentralized Turkana pastoralists in Kenya assemble raiding parties. Based on accounts of 54 Turkana battles obtained from semi-structured interviews with Turkana warriors, I describe the precipitating factors, recruitment process, exhortations and leadership involved in marshalling a raiding party. Details of this ethnographic case shed light on how voluntary informal armies are mobilized, and illustrate how culturally evolved institutions harness our cooperative dispositions at multiple scales to produce large-scale warfare. This article is part of the theme issue 'Intergroup conflict across taxa'.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sarah Mathew
- School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Institute of Human Origins, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA
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Combat stress in a small-scale society suggests divergent evolutionary roots for posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2021; 118:2020430118. [PMID: 33876754 PMCID: PMC8054015 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2020430118] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/27/2022] Open
Abstract
Did PTSD and combat stress evolve as a universal human response to danger? Or are they culturally specific? We addressed this question by interviewing 218 warriors from the Turkana, a non-Western small-scale society, who engage in high-risk lethal cattle raids. We found that symptoms that may have evolved to protect against danger, like flashbacks and startle response, were high in the Turkana and best predicted by combat exposure. However, symptoms that are similar to depression were lower in the Turkana compared to American service members and were better predicted by moral violations. These findings suggest different evolutionary roots for different symptoms which may lead to better diagnosis and treatment. Military personnel in industrialized societies often develop posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) during combat. It is unclear whether combat-related PTSD is a universal evolutionary response to danger or a culture-specific syndrome of industrialized societies. We interviewed 218 Turkana pastoralist warriors in Kenya, who engage in lethal cattle raids, about their combat experiences and PTSD symptoms. Turkana in our sample had a high prevalence of PTSD symptoms, but Turkana with high symptom severity had lower prevalence of depression-like symptoms than American service members with high symptom severity. Symptoms that facilitate responding to danger were better predicted by combat exposure, whereas depressive symptoms were better predicted by exposure to combat-related moral violations. The findings suggest that some PTSD symptoms stem from an evolved response to danger, while depressive PTSD symptoms may be caused by culturally specific moral norm violations.
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Straight B, Fisher G, Needham BL, Naugle A, Olungah C, Wanitjirattikal P, Root C, Farman J, Barkman T, Lalancette C. Lifetime stress and war exposure timing may predict methylation changes at NR3C1 based on a pilot study in a warrior cohort in a small-scale society in Kenya. Am J Hum Biol 2020; 33:e23515. [PMID: 33058324 DOI: 10.1002/ajhb.23515] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/04/2020] [Revised: 09/23/2020] [Accepted: 09/24/2020] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
OBJECTIVES Candidate gene methylation studies of NR3C1 have identified associations with psychosocial adversity, including war trauma. This pilot study (sample sizes from 22 to 45 for primary analyses) examined NR3C1 methylation in a group of Kenyan pastoralist young men in relation to culturally relevant traumatic experiences, including participation in coalitional lethal gun violence. METHODS Adolescent and young adult Samburu men ("warriors") were recruited for participation. DNA was obtained from whole saliva and methylation analyses performed using mass spectrometry. We performed a data reduction of variables from a standardized instrument of lifetime stress using a factor analysis and we assessed the association between the extracted factors with culturally relevant and cross-culturally comparative experiences. RESULTS Cumulative lifetime trauma exposure and forms of violence to which warriors are particularly susceptible were associated with DNA methylation changes in the NR3C1 1F promoter region but not in the NR3C1 1D promoter region. However, sensitivity analyses revealed significant associations between individual CpG sites in both regions and cumulative stress exposures, war exposure timing, and war fatalities. CONCLUSIONS This study supports the importance of NR3C1 methylation changes in response to challenging life circumstances, including in a global south cultural context that contrasts in notable ways from global north contexts and from the starkly tragic examples of the Rwandan genocide and war-associated rape explored in recent studies. Timing of traumatic exposure and culturally salient means to measure enduring symptoms of trauma remain important considerations for DNA methylation studies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Bilinda Straight
- Department of Anthropology, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, Michigan, USA
| | - Georgiana Fisher
- Department of Statistics, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, Michigan, USA
| | - Belinda L Needham
- Department of Epidemiology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA
| | - Amy Naugle
- Department of Psychology, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, Michigan, USA
| | - Charles Olungah
- University of Nairobi Institute of Anthropology, Gender & African Studies, Nairobi, Nairobi, Kenya
| | | | - Cecilia Root
- Unaffiliated (Western Michigan University Department of Anthropology Alum), Kalamazoo, Michigan, USA
| | - Jen Farman
- Unaffiliated (Western Michigan University Department of Anthropology Alum), Kalamazoo, Michigan, USA
| | - Todd Barkman
- Department of Biological Sciences, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, Michigan, USA
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Exploring Warfare and Violence from a Cross-Cultural Perspective : Introduction to the Special Issue. HUMAN NATURE-AN INTERDISCIPLINARY BIOSOCIAL PERSPECTIVE 2019; 30:145-148. [PMID: 30888613 DOI: 10.1007/s12110-019-09341-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/27/2022]
Abstract
This special issue of Human Nature presents selected works from the 2015 and 2017 "Warfare, Environment, Social Inequality, and Pro-Sociability" (WESIPS) conferences held at the Center for Cross-Cultural Study in Seville, Spain. These investigations explore the manifestations of indigenous warfare and violence from a host of theoretical perspectives. Topics range from the origins of warfare to the psychological repercussions of combat, the relationship between warfare and status, as well as the documentation of peace processes among warring groups. This issue also examines the effects of militarization and coercive conservation on indigenous peoples.
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