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Influence of COMT genotype and affective distractors on the processing of self-generated thought
The catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) enzyme is a major determinant of prefrontal dopamine levels. The Val(158)Met polymorphism affects COMT enzymatic activity and has been associated with variation in executive function and affective processing. This study investigated the effect of COMT genotype...
Autores principales: | , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Oxford University Press
2015
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4305337/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25190703 http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/scan/nsu118 |
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author | Kilford, Emma J. Dumontheil, Iroise Wood, Nicholas W. Blakemore, Sarah-Jayne |
author_facet | Kilford, Emma J. Dumontheil, Iroise Wood, Nicholas W. Blakemore, Sarah-Jayne |
author_sort | Kilford, Emma J. |
collection | PubMed |
description | The catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) enzyme is a major determinant of prefrontal dopamine levels. The Val(158)Met polymorphism affects COMT enzymatic activity and has been associated with variation in executive function and affective processing. This study investigated the effect of COMT genotype on the flexible modulation of the balance between processing self-generated and processing stimulus-oriented information, in the presence or absence of affective distractors. Analyses included 124 healthy adult participants, who were also assessed on standard working memory (WM) tasks. Relative to Val carriers, Met homozygotes made fewer errors when selecting and manipulating self-generated thoughts. This effect was partly accounted for by an association between COMT genotype and visuospatial WM performance. We also observed a complex interaction between the influence of affective distractors, COMT genotype and sex on task accuracy: male, but not female, participants showed a sensitivity to the affective distractors that was dependent on COMT genotype. This was not accounted for by WM performance. This study provides novel evidence of the role of dopaminergic genetic variation on the ability to select and manipulate self-generated thoughts. The results also suggest sexually dimorphic effects of COMT genotype on the influence of affective distractors on executive function. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-4305337 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2015 |
publisher | Oxford University Press |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-43053372015-06-01 Influence of COMT genotype and affective distractors on the processing of self-generated thought Kilford, Emma J. Dumontheil, Iroise Wood, Nicholas W. Blakemore, Sarah-Jayne Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci Original Articles The catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) enzyme is a major determinant of prefrontal dopamine levels. The Val(158)Met polymorphism affects COMT enzymatic activity and has been associated with variation in executive function and affective processing. This study investigated the effect of COMT genotype on the flexible modulation of the balance between processing self-generated and processing stimulus-oriented information, in the presence or absence of affective distractors. Analyses included 124 healthy adult participants, who were also assessed on standard working memory (WM) tasks. Relative to Val carriers, Met homozygotes made fewer errors when selecting and manipulating self-generated thoughts. This effect was partly accounted for by an association between COMT genotype and visuospatial WM performance. We also observed a complex interaction between the influence of affective distractors, COMT genotype and sex on task accuracy: male, but not female, participants showed a sensitivity to the affective distractors that was dependent on COMT genotype. This was not accounted for by WM performance. This study provides novel evidence of the role of dopaminergic genetic variation on the ability to select and manipulate self-generated thoughts. The results also suggest sexually dimorphic effects of COMT genotype on the influence of affective distractors on executive function. Oxford University Press 2015-06 2014-09-03 /pmc/articles/PMC4305337/ /pubmed/25190703 http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/scan/nsu118 Text en © The Author (2014). Published by Oxford University Press. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
spellingShingle | Original Articles Kilford, Emma J. Dumontheil, Iroise Wood, Nicholas W. Blakemore, Sarah-Jayne Influence of COMT genotype and affective distractors on the processing of self-generated thought |
title | Influence of COMT genotype and affective distractors on the processing of self-generated thought |
title_full | Influence of COMT genotype and affective distractors on the processing of self-generated thought |
title_fullStr | Influence of COMT genotype and affective distractors on the processing of self-generated thought |
title_full_unstemmed | Influence of COMT genotype and affective distractors on the processing of self-generated thought |
title_short | Influence of COMT genotype and affective distractors on the processing of self-generated thought |
title_sort | influence of comt genotype and affective distractors on the processing of self-generated thought |
topic | Original Articles |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4305337/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25190703 http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/scan/nsu118 |
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