A genome-wide survey of human short-term memory

• Published in: Molecular psychiatry Vol. 16; no. 2; pp. 184 - 192
• Main Authors: Papassotiropoulos, A, Henke, K, Stefanova, E, Aerni, A, Müller, A, Demougin, P, Vogler, C, Sigmund, J C, Gschwind, L, Huynh, K-D, Coluccia, D, Mondadori, C R, Hänggi, J, Buchmann, A, Kostic, V, Novakovic, I, van den Bussche, H, Kaduszkiewicz, H, Weyerer, S, Bickel, H, Riedel-Heller, S, Pentzek, M, Wiese, B, Dichgans, M, Wagner, M, Jessen, F, Maier, W, de Quervain, D J-F
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 01.02.2011; Nature Publishing Group
• Subjects: 631/208/1515; 631/208/457/649; 631/378/1595/1637; Adolescent; Adult; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Anticonvulsants; Behavioral Sciences; Biological and medical sciences; Biological Psychology; Brain - blood supply; Brain research; Care and treatment; Data Collection; Depression, Mental; Europe; Female; Gene Expression Profiling; Genetic aspects; Genome-Wide Association Study; Genomes; Genotype; Health aspects; Humans; Image Processing, Computer-Assisted - methods; International Cooperation; Magnetic resonance imaging; Magnetic Resonance Imaging - methods; Male; Medical sciences; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Memory; Memory, Short-Term - physiology; Mental depression; Mental health; NAV1.1 Voltage-Gated Sodium Channel; Nerve Tissue Proteins - genetics; Neurology; Neuropsychological Tests; Neuropsychology; Neurosciences; Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis - methods; Original; original-article; Oxygen - blood; Pharmacotherapy; Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide; Psychiatry; Psychological aspects; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Short-term memory; Sodium Channels - genetics; Young Adult; Europe; Germany; Serbia; Basel Switzerland; Switzerland; fMRI; memory; GWAS; functional brain imaging; sodium channel; SCN1A; Human; Central nervous system; Cognition; Ionic channel; Nuclear magnetic resonance imaging; Encephalon; Survey; Sodium; Short-term memory; Medical imagery; Functional imaging
• ISSN: 1359-4184; 1476-5578
• DOI: 10.1038/mp.2009.133

Recent advances in the development of high-throughput genotyping platforms allow for the unbiased identification of genes and genomic sequences related to heritable traits. In this study, we analyzed human short-term memory, which refers to the ability to remember information over a brief period of time and which has been found disturbed in many neuropsychiatric conditions, including schizophrenia and depression. We performed a genome-wide survey at 909 622 polymorphic loci and report six genetic variations significantly associated with human short-term memory performance after genome-wide correction for multiple comparisons. A polymorphism within SCN1A (encoding the α subunit of the type I voltage-gated sodium channel) was replicated in three independent populations of 1699 individuals. Functional magnetic resonance imaging during an n-back working memory task detected SCN1A allele-dependent activation differences in brain regions typically involved in working memory processes. These results suggest an important role for SCN1A in human short-term memory.