Executive Attention in Schizophrenic Males and the Impact of COMT Val108/158Met Genotype on Performance on the Attention Network Test

Abstract

Our data suggest a disease-related dissociation of executive attention with reduced conflict effects in SZP. Furthermore, they support the hypothesis of differential tonic-phasic dopamine activation and specific dopamine level effects in different cognitive tasks, which helps interpreting contradictory findings of Met allele load on cognitive performance. Disease status seems to modulate the impact of COMT Val108/158Met on cognitive performance.

Evidence of IQ-Modulated Association Between ZNF804A Gene Polymorphism and Cognitive Function in Schizophrenia Patients

“…Consistent with this explanation, none of the studies cited above for higher symptoms used cognitive tasks. In contrast, other genetic studies that used cognitive measures as intermediate phenotypes (eg, Hashimoto et al, 2010;Quednow et al, 2011;Opgen-Rhein et al, 2008;Ehlis et al, 2007) had similar PANSS scores as the current study. In any case, however, it should be cautioned that results from studies that used cognitive tasks might not be generalized to low-functioning patients.…”

The Effects of CACNA1C Gene Polymorphism on Spatial Working Memory in Both Healthy Controls and Patients with Schizophrenia or Bipolar Disorder

“…It is worth noting that previous studies have published results with similarly small sample sizes when using quantitative cognitive performance as a phenotype. For an instance, Opgen-Rhein et al (2008) published a study in Schizophrenia Bulletin which contained 63 SCZ patients (involving 11 val/val) and 40 healthy controls (involving 13 val/val and 6 met/met) and found significant associations between COMT gene polymorphism and ANT task performance. In this study, we obtained consistent results across two different measures of spatial working memory, but it is necessary to replicate these results with large samples.…”

Event-related potentials associated with Attention Network Test

“…However, despite consistent behavioral reaction time patterns, well-characterized patterns of brain activations, and increasing interest in ANT as a cognitive task applicable to clinical samples like schizophrenia patients (e.g. Wang et al, 2005;Opgen-Rhein et al, 2008;Urbanek et al, 2009), precise temporal information on underlying neural processes during ANT remains scarce.…”