Background: The impact of genetic polymorphisms on cognition is assumed to increase with
age as losses of brain resources have to be compensated for. We investigate the relation of
catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) p.Val158Met polymorphism and cognitive capacity in
the course of adult development, healthy aging and the development of mild cognitive impairment
(MCI) in two birth cohorts of subjects born between 1930 and 1932 or between 1950
and 1952. Methods: Thorough neuropsychological assessment was conducted in a total of
587 participants across three examination waves between 1993 and 2008. The COMT genotype
was determined as a restriction fragment length polymorphism after PCR amplification
and digestion with Nla III. Results: Significant effects of the COMT p.Val158Met polymorphism
were identified for attention and cognitive flexibility in the younger but not the older cohort.
Conclusion: These results confirm the importance of the COMT p.Val158Met genotype on
tasks assessing attention and cognitive flexibility in midlife but not in healthy aging and the
development of MCI. Our findings suggest that the influence of COMT changes as a function
of age, decreasing from midlife to aging.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:DRESDEN/oai:qucosa:de:qucosa:80360 |
| Date | 10 August 2022 |
| Creators | Degen, Christina, Zschocke, Johannes, Toro, Pablo, Sattler, Christine, Wahl, Hans-Werner, Schönknecht, Peter, Schröder, Johannes |
| Publisher | Karger |
| Source Sets | Hochschulschriftenserver (HSSS) der SLUB Dresden |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion, doc-type:article, info:eu-repo/semantics/article, doc-type:Text |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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