Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2013 Jun;38(7):1253-63.
doi: 10.1038/npp.2013.24. Epub 2013 Jan 21.

Lack of association between COMT and working memory in a population-based cohort of healthy young adults

Margaret C Wardle  1 , Harriet de Wit, Ian Penton-Voak, Glyn Lewis, Marcus R Munafò
Affiliations

Lack of association between COMT and working memory in a population-based cohort of healthy young adults

Margaret C Wardle et al. Neuropsychopharmacology. 2013 Jun.

Abstract

The Val158Met polymorphism of the catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) gene is an important regulator of dopamine in the prefrontal cortex, an area critical to working memory. Working memory deficits are present in several psychiatric disorders, and there is wide variation in working memory capacity in the normal population. Association studies of COMT and working memory in healthy volunteers have yielded inconsistent results, possibly because of small sample sizes. Here we examine COMT in relation to N-Back working memory task performance in a large population-based cohort of young adults. We predicted individuals with one or two copies of the Met allele would perform better, and that this relationship would be more evident in males than females. Participants (N=1857-2659) tested at 18 years of age, were enrolled in the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC). We used multiple regression to examine effects of sex and COMT genotype on N-Back hits, false positives, discriminability (d'), and reaction time while controlling for important covariates. COMT genotype did not predict hits or d'. There was a nominally significant interaction between COMT and sex on false positives, but this was not in the predicted direction, and was not significant after controlling for covariates. COMT genotype was not related to working memory in this large population-based cohort. It is possible COMT is not meaningfully associated with working memory in healthy young adults, or that COMT effects are detectable only in assessments reflecting neural processes underlying cognition, such as fMRI, rather than in behavioral performance.

PubMed Disclaimer

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Barnett J, Scoriels L, Munafò MR. Meta-analysis of the cognitive effects of the catechol-O-methyltransferase gene Val158/108Met polymorphism. Biol Psychiatry. 2008;64:137–144. - PubMed
    1. Barnett J, Scoriels L, Munafò MR. Erratum. Biol Psychiatry. 2011;69:389.
    1. Barnett JH, Heron J, Goldman D, Jones PB, Xu K. Effects of catechol-O-methyltransferase on normal variation in the cognitive function of children. Am J Psychiatry. 2009;166:909. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Barnett JH, Heron J, Ring SM, Golding J, Goldman D, Xu K, et al. Gender-specific effects of the catechol-O-methyltransferase Val108/158Met polymorphism on cognitive function in children. Am J Psychiatry. 2007;164:142–149. - PubMed
    1. Blanchard MM, Chamberlain SR, Roiser J, Robbins TW, Müller U. Effects of two dopamine-modulating genes (DAT1 9/10 and COMT Val/Met) on n-back working memory performance in healthy volunteers. Psychol Med. 2011;41:611–618. - PubMed

Publication types

Substances

LinkOut - more resources