Greene Ciara M, Bellgrove Mark A, Gill Michael, Robertson Ian H
Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland.
Neuropsychologia. 2009 Jan;47(2):591-4. doi: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2008.10.003. Epub 2008 Oct 10.
Sustained attention is modulated by the neurotransmitter noradrenaline. The balance of dopamine and noradrenaline in the cortex is controlled by the DBH gene. The principal variant in this gene is a C/T change at position -1021, and the T allele at this locus is hypothesised to result in a slower rate of dopamine to noradrenaline conversion than the C allele. Two hundred participants who were genotyped for the DBH C-1021T marker performed the Sustained Attention to Response Task (SART). DBH genotype was found to significantly predict performance; participants with more copies of the T allele made more errors of commission, indicative of lapses in sustained attention. A significant negative correlation was also observed for all participants between errors of commission and mean reaction time. The decrease in noradrenaline occasioned by the T allele may impair sustained attention by reducing participants' ability to remain alert throughout the task and by increasing their susceptibility to distractors.
持续注意力受神经递质去甲肾上腺素调节。皮质中多巴胺和去甲肾上腺素的平衡由DBH基因控制。该基因的主要变体是-1021位的C/T变化，假设该位点的T等位基因导致多巴胺向去甲肾上腺素转化的速度比C等位基因慢。对200名进行了DBH C-1021T标记基因分型的参与者进行了持续注意力反应任务（SART）。发现DBH基因型能显著预测表现；T等位基因拷贝数更多的参与者出现更多的执行错误，这表明持续注意力出现失误。在所有参与者中，执行错误与平均反应时间之间也观察到显著的负相关。T等位基因引起的去甲肾上腺素减少可能会损害持续注意力，这是通过降低参与者在整个任务中保持警觉的能力以及增加他们对干扰物的易感性来实现的。
