Learning to read emotions and faces is important for our well-being. For some of us, the act of gazing into another person’s eyes is innately rewarding … especially if they are smiling. New mothers and their infants can be found locked in each others smiling countenance … thus strengthening the developing neural pathways upon which the infant’s future social skills will grow.
One component of these neural pathways is the CNR1 gene expressed in the striatum and other brain regions that process rewarding and positively-reinforcing stimuli. For most of us, a happy smiling face is positively rewarding … moreso with certain CNR1 genotypes.
From Drs. Baron-Cohen and Chakrabarti:
“A comparison of these results with those from our earlier fMRI study reveals that for the SNP rs806377, the allelic group (CC) associated with the highest striatal response is also associated with the longest gaze duration for happy faces. For rs806380, the allelic group associated with the highest striatal response (GG) is also associated with the longest gaze duration for happy faces.”
My 23andMe profile shows both the long-gaze CC and GG genotypes for rs806377 and rs806380. Mmmmkay … I guess this would be a good time to apologize to all the girls I inappropriately stared at in the cafeteria back in college … even though you weren’t usually smiling back at me. I guess my CNR1 and striatum were pretty overactive.
Genes 2 Brains 2 Mind 2 Me 
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