Heritability of brain activity related to response inhibition: A longitudinal genetic study in adolescent twins

Abstract

The ability to inhibit prepotent but context- or goal-inappropriate responses is essential for adaptive self-regulation of behavior. Deficits in response inhibition, a key component of impulsivity, have been implicated as a core dysfunction in a range of neuropsychiatric disorders such as ADHD and addictions. Identification of genetically transmitted variation in the neural underpinnings of response inhibition can help to elucidate etiological pathways to these disorders and establish the links between genes, brain, and behavior. However, little is known about genetic influences on the neural mechanisms of response inhibition during adolescence, a developmental period characterized by weak self-regulation of behavior. Here we investigated heritability of ERPs elicited in a Go/No-Go task in a large sample of adolescent twins assessed longitudinally at ages 12, 14, and 16. Genetic analyses showed significant heritability of inhibition-related frontal N2 and P3 components at all three ages, with 50 to 60% of inter-individual variability being attributable to genetic factors. These genetic influences included both common genetic factors active at different ages and novel genetic influences emerging during development. Finally, individual differences in the rate of developmental changes from age 12 to age 16 were significantly influenced by genetic factors. In conclusion, the present study provides the first evidence for genetic influences on neural correlates of response inhibition during adolescence and suggests that ERPs elicited in the Go/No-Go task can serve as intermediate neurophysiological phenotypes (endophenotypes) for the study of disinhibition and impulse control disorders.

Effects of Acute Aerobic Exercise Combined with Resistance Exercise on Neurocognitive Performance in Obese Women

“…The ERP P3 component, a positive component occurring around 300–800 ms post-stimulus, is typically associated with late general inhibition [ 50 , 51 ] and attentional resource allocation [ 68 , 69 ]. Several experimental studies have generally demonstrated increased amplitude and shortened latency of P3 components in relation to cognitive electrophysiological improvements caused by an acute bout of exercise [ 70 , 71 , 72 ].…”

ADHD: Current Concepts and Treatments in Children and Adolescents

“… 204 Similarly, the heritability of ERPs elicited in a Go/No-Go-task measuring response inhibition known to be altered in ADHD, was found to be significantly heritable. 205 …”

No evidence of associations between ADHD and event-related brain potentials from a continuous performance task in a population-based sample of adolescent twins

“…The phenotypic correlations associated with a rg of .40, and h 2 ERP = .40 would be .26, which is way above what we observe in this sample. With this caveat in mind, we first estimated the heritability of key ERPs derived from the flanked CPT in an early adolescence, as previous studies focused mainly on late adolescence [49] and adulthood [47,48]. We found significant MZ cross-twin within-trait correlations for all ERPs (Table 3) which support the presence of genetic influences.…”

“…More fundamentally, a trait measure that is a candidate genetic-risk index must also be heritable in itself [45,46]. Data in adults (ages 18–28) point towards heritabilities of ~.50–60 for P3 and N2 amplitudes [47], with such magnitudes staying relatively stable across adulthood (ages 17–23) [48] and across early adolescence (ages 12–16) [49]. There is also evidence for the heritability of CNV in delayed response tasks (with estimates between ~.21 to ~.43, varying depending on task-load conditions and the channels considered; [50]).…”