A Functional Polymorphism in the COMT Gene and Performance on a Test of Prefrontal Cognition

• Published in: The American journal of psychiatry Vol. 159; no. 4; pp. 652 - 654
• Main Authors: Malhotra, Anil K., Kestler, Lisa J., Mazzanti, Chiara, Bates, John A., Goldberg, Terry, Goldman, David
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Washington, DC American Psychiatric Publishing 01.04.2002; American Psychiatric Association
• Subjects: Adult; Adult and adolescent clinical studies; Alleles; Biological and medical sciences; Brain; Codon; Cognition & reasoning; Cognition - physiology; Enzymes; Female; Genotype; Humans; Male; Medical sciences; Metabolism; Methionine - genetics; Middle Aged; Neuropsychological Tests; Organic mental disorders. Neuropsychology; Polymorphism, Genetic - genetics; Prefrontal Cortex - physiology; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Reference Values; Valine - genetics; Human; Evaluation; Executive function; Healthy subject; Enzyme; Transferases; Central nervous system; Neuropsychological test; Genotype; Psychometrics; Catechol O-methyltransferase; Cognition; Prefrontal cortex; Genetic determinism; Methyltransferases; Wisconsin Card Sorting Test; Genetics; Comparative study; Brain (vertebrata); Polymorphism
• ISSN: 0002-953X; 1535-7228
• DOI: 10.1176/appi.ajp.159.4.652

OBJECTIVE: In the prefrontal cortex, the enzyme catechol O-methyltransferase (COMT) is critical in the metabolic degradation of dopamine, a neurotransmitter hypothesized to influence human cognitive function. The COMT gene contains a functional polymorphism, Val158Met, that exerts a fourfold effect on enzyme activity. The current study investigated whether prefrontal cognition varies with COMT genotype. METHOD: Val158Met was genotyped in 73 healthy volunteers. A task of prefrontal cognition, the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test, was also administered. RESULTS: Subjects with only the low-activity met allele made significantly fewer perseverative errors on the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test than did subjects with the val allele. CONCLUSIONS: These data are consistent with those of previous studies, suggesting that a functional genetic polymorphism may influence prefrontal cognition.