Whole genome association scan for genetic polymorphisms influencing information processing speed

Abstract

Processing speed is an important cognitive function that is compromised in psychiatric illness (e.g., schizophrenia, depression) and old age; it shares genetic background with complex cognition (e.g., working memory, reasoning). To find genes influencing speed we performed a genome-wide association scan in up to three cohorts: Brisbane (mean age 16 years; N = 1659); LBC1936 (mean age 70 years, N = 992); LBC1921 (mean age 82 years, N = 307), and; HBCS (mean age 64 years, N = 1080). Meta-analysis of the common measures highlighted various suggestively significant (p < 1.21 × 10 −5 ) SNPs and plausible candidate genes (e.g., TRIB3). A biological pathways analysis of the speed factor identified two common pathways from the KEGG database (cell junction, focal adhesion) in two cohorts, while a pathway analysis linked to the GO database revealed common pathways across pairs of speed measures (e.g., receptor binding, cellular metabolic process). These highlighted genes and pathways will be able to inform future research, including results for psychiatric disease. KeywordsInformation processing speed; Cognitive ability; Genes; Biological pathways © 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. * Corresponding author at: Psychology, University of Edinburgh, 7 George Square, Edinburgh EH8 9JZ, UK. Tel.: +44 131 6 51 5040; fax: +44 131 650 8405. michelle.luciano@ed.ac.uk. . 1 These authors contributed equally to this work. Appendix A. Supplementary data Supplementary data associated with this article can be found, in the online version, at doi: 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2010.11.008. Europe PMC Funders GroupAuthor Manuscript Biol Psychol. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2012 April 04. Published in final edited form as:Biol Psychol. 2011 March ; 86(3): 193-202. doi:10.1016/j.biopsycho.2010 Europe PMC Funders Author Manuscripts Europe PMC Funders Author ManuscriptsInformation processing speed is considered a lower level cognitive process, although it shares a large portion of its genetic variance with higher order abilities (e.g., reasoning, working memory) (Luciano et al., 2003;Neubauer, 1997). It is a cognitive domain that is particularly prone to deterioration with ageing (Salthouse, 1996); for example, simple reaction time (RT) slows at around 50 years of age and choice RT slows throughout the adult range (Der and Deary, 2006). However, similar to complex cognition with which it is correlated, the genes influencing speed are expected to be stable across the lifespan (Lyons et al., 2009). Speed is affected (slowed) in psychiatric conditions such as schizophrenia, depression and substance use disorder (Andersson et al., 2010;Jahshan et al., 2009) and RT has even been shown to account for the relationship between IQ and mortality in a cohort followed up until age 70 (Deary and Der, 2005;Latvala et al., 2009). It is therefore an important trait to understand, and in this study, we aim to locate genes influencing chronometric and psychometric processing speed measures via genome wide association. These genes may underlie comple...

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