Genetics of environmental sensitivity and its association with variations in emotional problems, autistic traits, and wellbeing

Elham Assary; Olakunle Ayokunmi Oginni; Geneviève Morneau-Vaillancourt; Georgina Krebs; Elisavet Palaiologou; Celestine Lockhart; Angelica Ronald; Thalia Eley

doi:10.1038/s41380-024-02508-6

Genetics of environmental sensitivity and its association with variations in emotional problems, autistic traits, and wellbeing

Elham Assary, Olakunle Ayokunmi Oginni, Geneviève Morneau-Vaillancourt, Georgina Krebs, Elisavet Palaiologou, Celestine Lockhart, Angelica Ronald, Thalia Eley^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

4 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Greater environmental sensitivity has been associated with increased risk of mental health problems, especially in response to stressors, and lower levels of subjective wellbeing. Conversely, sensitivity also correlates with lower risk of emotional problems in the absence of adversity, and in response to positive environmental influences. Additionally, sensitivity has been found to correlate positively with autistic traits. Individual differences in environmental sensitivity are partly heritable, but it is unknown to what extent the aetiological factors underlying sensitivity overlap with those on emotional problems (anxiety and depressive symptoms), autistic traits and wellbeing. The current study used multivariate twin models and data on sensitivity, emotional problems, autistic traits, and several indices of psychological and subjective wellbeing, from over 2,800 adolescent twins in England and Wales. We found that greater overall sensitivity correlated with greater emotional problems, autistic traits, and lower subjective wellbeing. A similar pattern of correlations was found for the Excitation and Sensory factors of sensitivity, but, in contrast, the Aesthetic factor was positively correlated with psychological wellbeing, though not with emotional problems nor autistic traits. The observed correlations were largely due to overlapping genetic influences. Importantly, genetic influences underlying sensitivity explained between 2 and 12% of the variations in emotional problems, autistic traits, and subjective wellbeing, independent of trait-specific or overlapping genetic influences. These findings encourage incorporating the genetics of environmental sensitivity in future genomic studies aiming to delineate the heterogeneity in emotional problems, autistic traits, and wellbeing.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	2438-2446
Number of pages	9
Journal	Molecular Psychiatry
Volume	29
Issue number	8
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41380-024-02508-6
Publication status	Published - 3 Mar 2024

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title = "Genetics of environmental sensitivity and its association with variations in emotional problems, autistic traits, and wellbeing",

abstract = "Greater environmental sensitivity has been associated with increased risk of mental health problems, especially in response to stressors, and lower levels of subjective wellbeing. Conversely, sensitivity also correlates with lower risk of emotional problems in the absence of adversity, and in response to positive environmental influences. Additionally, sensitivity has been found to correlate positively with autistic traits. Individual differences in environmental sensitivity are partly heritable, but it is unknown to what extent the aetiological factors underlying sensitivity overlap with those on emotional problems (anxiety and depressive symptoms), autistic traits and wellbeing. The current study used multivariate twin models and data on sensitivity, emotional problems, autistic traits, and several indices of psychological and subjective wellbeing, from over 2,800 adolescent twins in England and Wales. We found that greater overall sensitivity correlated with greater emotional problems, autistic traits, and lower subjective wellbeing. A similar pattern of correlations was found for the Excitation and Sensory factors of sensitivity, but, in contrast, the Aesthetic factor was positively correlated with psychological wellbeing, though not with emotional problems nor autistic traits. The observed correlations were largely due to overlapping genetic influences. Importantly, genetic influences underlying sensitivity explained between 2 and 12% of the variations in emotional problems, autistic traits, and subjective wellbeing, independent of trait-specific or overlapping genetic influences. These findings encourage incorporating the genetics of environmental sensitivity in future genomic studies aiming to delineate the heterogeneity in emotional problems, autistic traits, and wellbeing. ",

author = "Elham Assary and Oginni, {Olakunle Ayokunmi} and Genevi{\`e}ve Morneau-Vaillancourt and Georgina Krebs and Elisavet Palaiologou and Celestine Lockhart and Angelica Ronald and Thalia Eley",

note = "Funding Information: We gratefully acknowledge the ongoing contribution of the participants in the Twins Early Development Study (TEDS) and their families. TEDS is supported by a programme grant (MR/V012878/1) to Professor Thalia Eley from the UK Medical Research Council (previously MR/M021475/1 awarded to Professor Robert Plomin), with additional support from the US National Institutes of Health (AG046938). GMV is supported by postdoctoral fellowships from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (756-2021-0516) and Fonds de recherche du Qu{\'e}bec Soci{\'e}t{\'e} et Culture (2022-B3Z-297753). Ethical approval for TEDS has been provided by the King{\textquoteright}s College London Ethics Committee (reference: PNM/09/10–104). Written informed consent was obtained prior to each wave of data collection from parents and from twins themselves from age 16 onwards. For the purposes of open access, the author has applied a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) licence to any Accepted Author Manuscript version arising from this submission. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} The Author(s) 2024.",

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doi = "10.1038/s41380-024-02508-6",

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AU - Assary, Elham

AU - Oginni, Olakunle Ayokunmi

AU - Morneau-Vaillancourt, Geneviève

AU - Krebs, Georgina

AU - Palaiologou, Elisavet

AU - Lockhart, Celestine

AU - Ronald, Angelica

AU - Eley, Thalia

N1 - Funding Information: We gratefully acknowledge the ongoing contribution of the participants in the Twins Early Development Study (TEDS) and their families. TEDS is supported by a programme grant (MR/V012878/1) to Professor Thalia Eley from the UK Medical Research Council (previously MR/M021475/1 awarded to Professor Robert Plomin), with additional support from the US National Institutes of Health (AG046938). GMV is supported by postdoctoral fellowships from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (756-2021-0516) and Fonds de recherche du Québec Société et Culture (2022-B3Z-297753). Ethical approval for TEDS has been provided by the King’s College London Ethics Committee (reference: PNM/09/10–104). Written informed consent was obtained prior to each wave of data collection from parents and from twins themselves from age 16 onwards. For the purposes of open access, the author has applied a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) licence to any Accepted Author Manuscript version arising from this submission. Publisher Copyright: © The Author(s) 2024.

PY - 2024/3/3

Y1 - 2024/3/3

N2 - Greater environmental sensitivity has been associated with increased risk of mental health problems, especially in response to stressors, and lower levels of subjective wellbeing. Conversely, sensitivity also correlates with lower risk of emotional problems in the absence of adversity, and in response to positive environmental influences. Additionally, sensitivity has been found to correlate positively with autistic traits. Individual differences in environmental sensitivity are partly heritable, but it is unknown to what extent the aetiological factors underlying sensitivity overlap with those on emotional problems (anxiety and depressive symptoms), autistic traits and wellbeing. The current study used multivariate twin models and data on sensitivity, emotional problems, autistic traits, and several indices of psychological and subjective wellbeing, from over 2,800 adolescent twins in England and Wales. We found that greater overall sensitivity correlated with greater emotional problems, autistic traits, and lower subjective wellbeing. A similar pattern of correlations was found for the Excitation and Sensory factors of sensitivity, but, in contrast, the Aesthetic factor was positively correlated with psychological wellbeing, though not with emotional problems nor autistic traits. The observed correlations were largely due to overlapping genetic influences. Importantly, genetic influences underlying sensitivity explained between 2 and 12% of the variations in emotional problems, autistic traits, and subjective wellbeing, independent of trait-specific or overlapping genetic influences. These findings encourage incorporating the genetics of environmental sensitivity in future genomic studies aiming to delineate the heterogeneity in emotional problems, autistic traits, and wellbeing.

AB - Greater environmental sensitivity has been associated with increased risk of mental health problems, especially in response to stressors, and lower levels of subjective wellbeing. Conversely, sensitivity also correlates with lower risk of emotional problems in the absence of adversity, and in response to positive environmental influences. Additionally, sensitivity has been found to correlate positively with autistic traits. Individual differences in environmental sensitivity are partly heritable, but it is unknown to what extent the aetiological factors underlying sensitivity overlap with those on emotional problems (anxiety and depressive symptoms), autistic traits and wellbeing. The current study used multivariate twin models and data on sensitivity, emotional problems, autistic traits, and several indices of psychological and subjective wellbeing, from over 2,800 adolescent twins in England and Wales. We found that greater overall sensitivity correlated with greater emotional problems, autistic traits, and lower subjective wellbeing. A similar pattern of correlations was found for the Excitation and Sensory factors of sensitivity, but, in contrast, the Aesthetic factor was positively correlated with psychological wellbeing, though not with emotional problems nor autistic traits. The observed correlations were largely due to overlapping genetic influences. Importantly, genetic influences underlying sensitivity explained between 2 and 12% of the variations in emotional problems, autistic traits, and subjective wellbeing, independent of trait-specific or overlapping genetic influences. These findings encourage incorporating the genetics of environmental sensitivity in future genomic studies aiming to delineate the heterogeneity in emotional problems, autistic traits, and wellbeing.

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U2 - 10.1038/s41380-024-02508-6

DO - 10.1038/s41380-024-02508-6

M3 - Article

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JO - Molecular Psychiatry

JF - Molecular Psychiatry

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ER -

Genetics of environmental sensitivity and its association with variations in emotional problems, autistic traits, and wellbeing

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