Association of EEG coherence and an exonic GABA_BR1 gene polymorphism

Abstract

The GABA(B) receptor 1 gene is mapped to chromosome 6p21.3 within the HLA class I region close to the HLA-F gene. Susceptibility loci for epilepsy and schizophrenia have been mapped in this region. Based on pharmacological evidence, it has been suggested that GABA(B) receptors may play a crucial role in the synchronization of EEG oscillations, which in turn can be abnormal in neuropsychiatric disorders. In the present study, the hypothesis was tested, whether three exonic variants of the gene encoding the human GABA(B) receptor (GABA(B)R1) modify cortical synchronization measured as scalp-recorded EEG-coherence. Two principal components of EEG coherence (frontal coherence, parietotemporal coherence) were investigated in 104 healthy subjects during three conditions: resting EEG, activated EEG, and event-related EEG. No significant associations were found between the frontal coherence component and any polymorphism or between the parietotemporal coherence component and the exon 1a1 polymorphism. However, parietotemporal coherence showed statistically highly significant associations across all three experimental conditions with exon 7 and trend associations with exon 11. The results provide evidence that the translated polymorphism of exon 7 may be functionally meaningful and impact cortical EEG oscillations. Since variations of EEG coherence have been described for several neuropsychiatric disorders, the present association should be tested in clinical samples using EEG coherence as an intermediate phenotype.

EEG Biofeedback as a Treatment for Substance Use Disorders: Review, Rating of Efficacy and Recommendations for Further Research

“…Michael et al (1993) found higher central alpha and slowbeta coherence but lower parietal alpha and slow-beta coherence in male participants with alcohol dependence; contrarily, other findings suggest that morphine, alcohol, and marijuana show increased alpha 2 power in the spectral EEG and relate this to the euphoric state produced by the drug (Lukas, 1991(Lukas, , 1993Lukas et al, 1989Lukas et al, , 1995. Winterer, Enoch, et al (2003) and Winterer, Smolka, et al (2003) described higher lefttemporal alpha and slow-beta coherence and higher slow-beta coherence at right-temporal and frontal electrode pairs in alcoholdependent male and female participants. De Bruin et al (2004) showed that moderate to heavy alcohol consumption is associated with differences in synchronization of brain activity during rest and mental rehearsal.…”

“…In addition, some genes coding for GABA receptors in the brain, which mediate the effects of alcohol, are related to certain EEG patterns (Porjesz et al, 2005;Winterer, Smolka, et al, 2003). Moreover, some GABA-receptor genes that are related to EEG patterns are also associated with the risk to develop alcohol dependence.…”

Moderate-to-heavy alcohol intake is associated with differences in synchronization of brain activity during rest and mental rehearsal

“…In addition, some genes coding for GABA receptors in the brain, which mediate the effects of alcohol, are related to certain EEG patterns (e.g., Winterer et al, 2003c). Moreover, some GABAreceptor genes that are related to EEG patterns are also associated with the risk to develop alcohol dependence.…”

Multimodal Physiological Biometrics Authentication

“…(1.4) [19,20,21]. They represent some join characteristic of the two channels involved in the computation.…”

“…The coherence measure quantizes the correlation between two time series at different frequencies [19,20]. The magnitude of the squared coherence estimate is a frequency function with values ranging from 0 to1.…”