Original articleCatechol-O-Methyltransferase (COMT) Genotypes and Working Memory: Associations with Differing Cognitive Operations
Section snippets
Subjects
A total of 402 healthy adults between the ages of 18 and 55 were recruited from Internet-based advertisements and from postings at the medical center and local colleges. All subjects gave written informed consent to participate in the study. They were screened to exclude those with current or past psychiatric or neurologic disorders, as well as substance abuse. The subjects also completed self-rating scales for assessing psychopathology, including the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-II; Beck et
Characteristics of COMT Genotypes
Genetic analyses identified 67 subjects with a met/met genotype (16.7%), 188 with a met/val genotype (46.8%), and 147 with a val/val genotype (36.5%). There was no deviation of genotype frequencies from Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium. Table 1 gives the demographic characteristics of these genotypes. They did not differ in gender, age, or education. Most subjects in each group were native English speakers, and there was no evidence of a genotype difference in intellectual ability as measured by
Discussion
The Letter–Number Sequencing test showed the predicted relationship between the COMT genotypes and performance, with the met/met group outperforming the met/val and val/val groups. The other working memory tests and the global working memory factor, derived from a principal components analysis of performance on the four working memory tests, were not related to the COMT genotypes. Expected genotype differences were not enhanced by or found on the most difficult conditions of the SDR, WSPT, or
References (30)
- et al.
Spatial working memory deficits and their relationship to negative symptoms in unmedicated schizophrenic patients
Biol Psychiatry
(1996) - et al.
Genetic risk of neuropsychological impairment in schizophreniaA study of monozygotic twins discordant and concordant for the disorder
Schizophr Res
(1995) - et al.
Variation in catechol-O-methyltransferase val158met genotype associated with schizotypy but not cognitionA population study in 543 young men
Biol Psychiatry
(2004) - et al.
Association of a functional catechol-O-methyltransferase-gene polymorphism and cognitive function in healthy females
Neurosci Lett
(2003) - et al.
Prefrontal neurons and the genetics of schizophrenia
Biol Psychiatry
(2001) - et al.
An inventory for measuring depression
Arch Gen Psychiatry
(1961) - et al.
Neurocognitive correlates of the COMT val158met polymorpism in chronic schizophrenia
Biol Psychiatry
(2002) - et al.
The catechol-O-methyltransferase polymorphismRelations to the tonic-phasic dopamine hypothesis and neuropsychiatric phenotypes
Neuropsychopharmacology
(2004) - et al.
Neuropsychological functioning in siblings discordant for schizophrenia and healthy volunteers
Arch Gen Psychiatry
(1994) - et al.
Functional hypofrontality and working memory dysfunction in schizophrenia
Am J Psychiatry
(1998)
Temporal dynamics of brain activation during a working memory task
Nature
The Hopkins Symptom Checklist (HSCL)A self-report symptom inventory
Behav Sci
Genetic and neurochemical modulation of prefrontal cognitive functions in children
Am J Psychiatry
Effect. Effect of COMT val108/158 met genotype on frontal lobe function and risk for schizophrenia
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A
Assessing the molecular genetics of attention networks
BMC Neurosci
Cited by (224)
Insights into the molecular genetic basis of individual differences in metacognition
2023, Physiology and BehaviorPlatelet MAO activity and COMT Val158Met genotype interaction predicts visual working memory updating efficiency
2021, Behavioural Brain ResearchNeural anomalies during vigilance in schizophrenia: Diagnostic specificity and genetic associations
2020, NeuroImage: ClinicalPreliminary Evidence for a Positive Relation Between the COMT rs4680 Met/Met Genotype and Math Achievement
2024, Developmental Neuropsychology