Lundwall Rebecca A, Dannemiller James L, Goldsmith H Hill
Department of Psychology, Brigham Young University, USA.
Department of Psychology, Rice University, USA.
Dev Sci. 2017 May;20(3). doi: 10.1111/desc.12371. Epub 2015 Nov 27.
This study elucidates genetic influences on reflexive (as opposed to sustained) attention in children (aged 9-16 years; N = 332) who previously participated as infants in visual attention studies using orienting to a moving bar (Dannemiller, 2004). We investigated genetic associations with reflexive attention measures in infancy and childhood in the same group of children. The genetic markers (single nucleotide polymorphisms and variable number tandem repeats on the genes APOE, BDNF, CHRNA4, COMT, DRD4, HTR4, IGF2, MAOA, SLC5A7, SLC6A3, and SNAP25) are related to brain development and/or to the availability of neurotransmitters such as acetylcholine, dopamine, or serotonin. This study shows that typically developing children have differences in reflexive attention associated with their genes, as we found in adults (Lundwall, Guo & Dannemiller, 2012). This effort to extend our previous findings to outcomes in infancy and childhood was necessary because genetic influence may differ over the course of development. Although two of the genes that were tested in our adult study (Lundwall et al., 2012) were significant in either our infant study (SLC6A3) or child study (DRD4), the specific markers tested differed. Performance on the infant task was associated with SLC6A3. In addition, several genetic associations with an analogous child task occurred with markers on CHRNA4, COMT, and DRD4. Interestingly, the child version of the task involved an interaction such that which genotype group performed poorer on the child task depended on whether we were examining the higher or lower infant scoring group. These findings are discussed in terms of genetic influences on reflexive attention in infancy and childhood.
本研究阐明了基因对9至16岁儿童（N = 332）反射性（而非持续性）注意力的影响，这些儿童在婴儿期曾参与使用移动条定向的视觉注意力研究（丹内米勒，2004年）。我们在同一组儿童中调查了婴儿期和儿童期反射性注意力测量指标的基因关联。基因标记（载脂蛋白E、脑源性神经营养因子、α4亚基烟碱型乙酰胆碱受体、儿茶酚-O-甲基转移酶、多巴胺受体D4、5-羟色胺受体4、胰岛素样生长因子2、单胺氧化酶A、溶质载体家族5成员7、溶质载体家族6成员3和突触小体相关蛋白25基因上的单核苷酸多态性和可变数目串联重复序列）与大脑发育和/或乙酰胆碱、多巴胺或血清素等神经递质的可用性有关。本研究表明，如我们在成年人中发现的那样（伦德瓦尔、郭和丹内米勒，2012年），发育正常的儿童在反射性注意力方面存在与其基因相关的差异。将我们之前的研究结果扩展到婴儿期和儿童期的结果是必要的，因为基因影响可能在发育过程中有所不同。尽管我们在成人研究（伦德瓦尔等人，2012年）中测试的两个基因在我们的婴儿研究（溶质载体家族6成员3）或儿童研究（多巴胺受体D4）中具有显著性，但测试的具体标记不同。婴儿任务的表现与溶质载体家族6成员3相关。此外，与类似儿童任务的几种基因关联发生在α4亚基烟碱型乙酰胆碱受体、儿茶酚-O-甲基转移酶和多巴胺受体D4基因的标记上。有趣的是，该任务的儿童版本涉及一种相互作用，即哪个基因型组在儿童任务上表现较差取决于我们是在检查婴儿得分较高还是较低的组。将根据基因对婴儿期和儿童期反射性注意力的影响来讨论这些发现。
