State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning & IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, P.R. China.
School of Public Health, Jining Medical University, 45# Jianshe South Road, Jining272013, Shandong Province, P.R. China.
Psychol Med. 2021 Aug;51(11):1927-1932. doi: 10.1017/S0033291720000720. Epub 2020 Apr 20.
The Arsenic (+3 oxidation state) methyltransferase (AS3MT) gene has been identified as a top risk gene for schizophrenia in several large-scale genome-wide association studies. A variable number tandem repeat (VNTR) of this gene is the most significant expression quantitative trait locus, but its role in brain activity in vivo is still unknown.
We first performed a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scan of 101 healthy subjects during a memory span task, trained all subjects on an adaptive memory span task for 1 month, and finally performed another fMRI scan after the training. After excluding subjects with excessive head movements for one or more scanning sessions, data from 93 subjects were included in the final analyses.
The VNTR was significantly associated with both baseline brain activation and training-induced changes in multiple regions including the prefrontal cortex and the anterior and posterior cingulate cortex. Additionally, it was associated with baseline brain activation in the striatum and the parietal cortex. All these results were corrected based on the family-wise error rate method across the whole brain at the peak level.
This study sheds light on the role of AS3MT gene variants in neural plasticity related to memory span training.
砷（+3 氧化态）甲基转移酶（AS3MT）基因已被确定为几个大规模全基因组关联研究中精神分裂症的首要风险基因。该基因的可变数串联重复（VNTR）是最显著的表达数量性状基因座，但它在体内大脑活动中的作用仍不清楚。
我们首先对 101 名健康受试者在记忆跨度任务期间进行了功能磁共振成像（fMRI）扫描，对所有受试者进行了为期 1 个月的适应性记忆跨度任务训练，最后在训练后进行了另一次 fMRI 扫描。在排除了一个或多个扫描会话中头部运动过多的受试者后，93 名受试者的数据被纳入最终分析。
VNTR 与包括前额叶皮层、前后扣带回皮层在内的多个区域的基线大脑激活以及训练引起的变化显著相关。此外，它还与纹状体和顶叶皮层的基线大脑激活有关。所有这些结果都在全脑峰值水平上基于组内错误率方法进行了校正。
这项研究揭示了 AS3MT 基因变异在与记忆跨度训练相关的神经可塑性中的作用。
