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An Association Study on the Polymorphisms of Dopaminergic Genes with Working Memory in a Healthy Chinese Han Population

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Abstract

Working memory (WM) is a highly heritable cognitive trait that is involved in many higher-level cognitive functions. In the past few years, much evidence has indicated that the reduction of dopamine activity in human brain can impair the WM system of the neuropsychiatric disorders. In this study, we hypothesized that some genes in the dopamine system were involved in the individual difference of the cognitive ability in healthy population. To confirm this hypothesis, a population-based study was performed to examine the effects of COMT, DAT 1, DRD 1, DRD 2, DRD 3, and DRD 4 on WM spans. Our results indicated there were significant associations of TaqIA and TaqIB in DRD 2 with digital WM span, respectively (χ2 = 9.460, p = 0.009; χ2 = 6.845, p = 0.033). On the other hand, we found a significant interaction between Ser9Gly in DRD 3 and TaqIA of DRD 2 on digital WM span (F = 3.207, p = 0.013). COMT, DAT 1 , DRD 1, and DRD 4, however, had no significant effects on digital and spatial WM spans (χ2<3.84, p > 0.05). These preliminary results further indicated that certain functional variants in dopamine system, such as TaqIA and TaqIB of DRD 2, were possibly involved in difference of WM in a healthy population.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank all the participants and researchers in this study. Funding for this study was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 30970967) and Special Prophase Project on Basic Research of the National Department of Science and Technology (2007CB516702).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Resource Biology and Biotechnology in Western China (Ministry of Education), College of Life Science, Institute of Population and Health, Northwest University, Xi’an, 710069, China

    Pingyuan Gong, Wanyu Chi, Kejin Zhang, Xiaocai Gao & Fuchang Zhang

  2. College of Medicine, Henan University of Science and Technology, Luoyang, 471003, China

    Pingyuan Gong

  3. Institute of Application Psychology, Northwest University, Xi’an, 710069, China

    Hang Zhang, Wanhua Ge, Anyun Zheng & Fuchang Zhang

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  1. Pingyuan Gong
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  2. Hang Zhang
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Correspondence to Fuchang Zhang.

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Gong, P., Zhang, H., Chi, W. et al. An Association Study on the Polymorphisms of Dopaminergic Genes with Working Memory in a Healthy Chinese Han Population. Cell Mol Neurobiol 32, 1011–1019 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10571-012-9817-3

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