Institute of Psychology, Eötvös Loránd University, Izabella u. 46, Budapest, Hungary.
Genes Brain Behav. 2011 Mar;10(2):129-36. doi: 10.1111/j.1601-183X.2010.00645.x. Epub 2010 Oct 7.
Twin studies indicate substantial inherited components in cognitive abilities. One of the most extensively studied candidate genes of cognitive functioning is the dopamine D4 receptor gene (DRD4), which has been suggested to be related to attentional disorders. Based on reaction time data of 245 Caucasians participating in different cognitive tasks, slower responses characterized the group with the 7-repeat allele. This effect was present in both sexes and was not because of fatigue. To our knowledge, this is the first report on significant association (P = 0.0001) between the DRD4 variable number of tandem repeat (VNTR) polymorphism and response latencies in a non-clinical adult sample. Other studied dopaminergic polymorphisms did not show an association with reaction time. These results illustrate that speed-of-performance measures derived from multiple reaction time tasks using standardization procedures could be promising tools to detect unique genetic effects in the background of cognitive abilities.
双生子研究表明认知能力有很大的遗传成分。在认知功能的候选基因中，多巴胺 D4 受体基因（DRD4）受到了广泛的研究，该基因被认为与注意力障碍有关。基于 245 名参与不同认知任务的白种人的反应时间数据，7 次重复等位基因的组反应较慢。这种效应在两性中均存在，且并非由于疲劳所致。据我们所知，这是在非临床成年样本中首次报道 DRD4 可变数串联重复（VNTR）多态性与反应时之间存在显著关联（P = 0.0001）。其他研究的多巴胺能多态性与反应时间无关。这些结果表明，使用标准化程序从多个反应时间任务中得出的速度表现测量可能是检测认知能力背景下独特遗传效应的有前途的工具。
