Age-related decline in brain resources modulates genetic effects on cognitive functioning

Individual differences in cognitive performance increase from early to late adulthood, likely reflecting influences of a multitude of factors. We hypothesize that losses in neurochemical and anatomical brain resources in normal aging modulate the effects of common genetic variations on cognitive fun...

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Published inFrontiers in neuroscience Vol. 2; no. 2; pp. 234 - 244
Main Authors Lindenberger, Ulman, Nagel, Irene E, Chicherio, Christian, Li, Shu-Chen, Heekeren, Hauke R, Bäckman, Lars
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Switzerland Frontiers Research Foundation 15.12.2008
Frontiers Media S.A
Subjects
Age
Aging
BDNF
Brain-derived neurotrophic factor
Catechol
Catechol O-methyltransferase
Cognition
Cognition & reasoning
Cognitive ability
COMT
Dementia
Dopamine
Genes
Genetic diversity
Hypotheses
Medicin och hälsovetenskap
Memory
Methyltransferase
Neuroscience
Polymorphism
resources
Studies
Twins
Germany
resources
aging
cognition
genes
dopamine
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Summary:Individual differences in cognitive performance increase from early to late adulthood, likely reflecting influences of a multitude of factors. We hypothesize that losses in neurochemical and anatomical brain resources in normal aging modulate the effects of common genetic variations on cognitive functioning. Our hypothesis is based on the assumption that the function relating brain resources to cognition is nonlinear, so that genetic differences exert increasingly large effects on cognition as resources recede from high to medium levels in the course of aging. Direct empirical support for this hypothesis comes from a study by Nagel et al. (2008), who reported that the effects of the Catechol-O-Methyltransferase (COMT) gene on cognitive performance are magnified in old age and interacted with the Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF) gene. We conclude that common genetic polymorphisms contribute to the increasing heterogeneity of cognitive functioning in old age. Extensions of the hypothesis to other polymorphisms are discussed. (150 of 150 words).
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Reviewed by: Nils I. Landro, University of Oslo, Norway; Kenneth Hugdahl, University of Bergen, Norway
Edited by: Kenneth Hugdahl, University of Bergen, Norway
ISSN:1662-4548
1662-453X
1662-453X
DOI:10.3389/neuro.01.039.2008