| 18252743 |
Bishop SJ, Fossella J, Croucher CJ, Duncan J: COMT val158met genotype affects recruitment of neural mechanisms supporting fluid intelligence. Cereb Cortex. 2008 Sep;18(9):2132-40. Epub 2008 Feb 5.
Fluid intelligence (g (f)) influences performance across many cognitive domains. It is affected by both genetic and environmental factors. Tasks tapping g (f) activate a network of brain regions including the lateral prefrontal cortex (LPFC), the presupplementary motor area/anterior cingulate cortex (pre-SMA/ACC), and the intraparietal sulcus (IPS). In line with the "intermediate phenotype" approach, we assessed effects of a polymorphism (val (158) met) in the catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) gene on activity within this network and on actual task performance during spatial and verbal g (f) tasks. COMT regulates catecholaminergic signaling in prefrontal cortex. The val (158) allele is associated with higher COMT activity than the met (158) allele. Twenty-two volunteers genotyped for the COMT val (158) met polymorphism completed high and low g (f) versions of spatial and verbal problem-solving tasks. Our results showed a positive effect of COMT val allele load upon the blood oxygen level-dependent response in LPFC, pre-SMA/ACC, and IPS during high g (f) versus low g (f) task performance in both spatial and verbal domains. These results indicate an influence of the COMT val (158) met polymorphism upon the neural circuitry supporting g (f). The behavioral effects of val allele load differed inside and outside the scanner, consistent with contextual modulation of the relation between COMT val (158) met genotype and g (f) task performance. |
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