BACKGROUND: Executive control of attention in schizophrenia has recently been assessed by means of the Attention Network Test (ANT). In the past, for tasks assessing executive attention, findings in schizophrenia have been contradictory, among others suggesting a lack of increased stimulus interference effects. Attention and executive functioning are substantially influenced by candidate genes of schizophrenia, including the functional single-nucleotide polymorphism catechol-o-methyltransferase (COMT) Val108/158Met, with task-dependent, specific effects of Met allele load on cognitive function. Therefore, we aimed at investigating executive attention in schizophrenic patients (SZP) as compared with healthy controls (HC), and to assess the specific impact of COMT Val108/158Met on executive attention, using ANT. METHODS: We applied ANT to 63 SZP and 40 HC. We calculated a general linear model to investigate the influence of affection status and the COMT Val108/158Met genotype on executive attention as assessed by the ANT. RESULTS: Multivariate analysis of variance revealed a significant effect of group on executive attention. SZP exhibited smaller conflict effects in the ANT. Met allele load significantly modulated executive attention efficiency, with homozygous Met individuals showing low overall reaction time but increased effects conflicting stimulus information in executive attention. CONCLUSIONS: Our data suggest a disease-related dissociation of executive attention with reduced conflict effects in SZP. Furthermore, they support the hypothesis of differential tonic-phasic dopamine activation and specific dopamine level effects in different cognitive tasks, which helps interpreting contradictory findings of Met allele load on cognitive performance. Disease status seems to modulate the impact of COMT Val108/158Met on cognitive performance.
BACKGROUND: Executive control of attention in schizophrenia has recently been assessed by means of the Attention Network Test (ANT). In the past, for tasks assessing executive attention, findings in schizophrenia have been contradictory, among others suggesting a lack of increased stimulus interference effects. Attention and executive functioning are substantially influenced by candidate genes of schizophrenia, including the functional single-nucleotide polymorphism catechol-o-methyltransferase (COMT) Val108/158Met, with task-dependent, specific effects of Met allele load on cognitive function. Therefore, we aimed at investigating executive attention in schizophrenicpatients (SZP) as compared with healthy controls (HC), and to assess the specific impact of COMT Val108/158Met on executive attention, using ANT. METHODS: We applied ANT to 63 SZP and 40 HC. We calculated a general linear model to investigate the influence of affection status and the COMT Val108/158Met genotype on executive attention as assessed by the ANT. RESULTS: Multivariate analysis of variance revealed a significant effect of group on executive attention. SZP exhibited smaller conflict effects in the ANT. Met allele load significantly modulated executive attention efficiency, with homozygous Met individuals showing low overall reaction time but increased effects conflicting stimulus information in executive attention. CONCLUSIONS: Our data suggest a disease-related dissociation of executive attention with reduced conflict effects in SZP. Furthermore, they support the hypothesis of differential tonic-phasic dopamine activation and specific dopamine level effects in different cognitive tasks, which helps interpreting contradictory findings of Met allele load on cognitive performance. Disease status seems to modulate the impact of COMT Val108/158Met on cognitive performance.
Authors: Giuseppe Blasi; Venkata S Mattay; Alessandro Bertolino; Brita Elvevåg; Joseph H Callicott; Saumitra Das; Bhaskar S Kolachana; Michael F Egan; Terry E Goldberg; Daniel R Weinberger Journal: J Neurosci Date: 2005-05-18 Impact factor: 6.167
Authors: Paul G Nestor; Marek Kubicki; Kevin M Spencer; Margaret Niznikiewicz; Robert W McCarley; Martha E Shenton Journal: Schizophr Res Date: 2006-12-05 Impact factor: 4.939
Authors: Patricia S Goldman-Rakic; Stacy A Castner; Torgny H Svensson; Larry J Siever; Graham V Williams Journal: Psychopharmacology (Berl) Date: 2004-04-30 Impact factor: 4.530
Authors: Cathryn M Lewis; Douglas F Levinson; Lesley H Wise; Lynn E DeLisi; Richard E Straub; Iiris Hovatta; Nigel M Williams; Sibylle G Schwab; Ann E Pulver; Stephen V Faraone; Linda M Brzustowicz; Charles A Kaufmann; David L Garver; Hugh M D Gurling; Eva Lindholm; Hilary Coon; Hans W Moises; William Byerley; Sarah H Shaw; Andrea Mesen; Robin Sherrington; F Anthony O'Neill; Dermot Walsh; Kenneth S Kendler; Jesper Ekelund; Tiina Paunio; Jouko Lönnqvist; Leena Peltonen; Michael C O'Donovan; Michael J Owen; Dieter B Wildenauer; Wolfgang Maier; Gerald Nestadt; Jean-Louis Blouin; Stylianos E Antonarakis; Bryan J Mowry; Jeremy M Silverman; Raymond R Crowe; C Robert Cloninger; Ming T Tsuang; Dolores Malaspina; Jill M Harkavy-Friedman; Dragan M Svrakic; Anne S Bassett; Jennifer Holcomb; Gursharan Kalsi; Andrew McQuillin; Jon Brynjolfson; Thordur Sigmundsson; Hannes Petursson; Elena Jazin; Tomas Zoëga; Tomas Helgason Journal: Am J Hum Genet Date: 2003-06-11 Impact factor: 11.025