The modulatory influence of the functional COMT Val158Met polymorphism on lexical decisions and semantic priming
The role of the prefrontal Cortex (PFC) in higher cognitive functions - including working memory, conflict resolution, set shifting and semantic processing - has been demonstrated unequivocally. Despite the great heterogeneity among tasks measuring these phenotypes, due in part to the different cogn...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2009-08-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Human Neuroscience |
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| Online Access: | http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/neuro.09.020.2009/full |
| _version_ | 1818412575651528704 |
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| author | Martin Reuter Christian Montag Kristina Peters Anne Kocher Markus Kiefer |
| author_facet | Martin Reuter Christian Montag Kristina Peters Anne Kocher Markus Kiefer |
| author_sort | Martin Reuter |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The role of the prefrontal Cortex (PFC) in higher cognitive functions - including working memory, conflict resolution, set shifting and semantic processing - has been demonstrated unequivocally. Despite the great heterogeneity among tasks measuring these phenotypes, due in part to the different cognitive sub-processes implied and the specificity of the stimulus material used, there is agreement that all of these tasks recruit an executive control system located in the PFC. On a biochemical level it is known that the dopaminergic system plays an important role in executive control functions. Evidence comes from molecular genetics relating the functional COMT Val158Met polymorphism to working memory and set shifting. In order determine whether this pattern of findings generalises to linguistic and semantic processing, we investigated the effects of the COMT Val158Met polymorphism in lexical decision making using masked and unmasked versions of the semantic priming paradigm on N=104 healthy subjects. Although we observed strong priming effects in all conditions (masked priming, unmasked priming with short/long stimulus asynchronies (SOAs), direct and indirect priming), COMT was not significantly related to masked priming, suggesting no reliable influence on semantic processing. However, COMT Val158Met was strongly associated with lexical decision latencies in all priming conditions if considered separately, explaining between 9 to 14.5 % of the variance. Therefore, the findings indicate that COMT mainly influences more general executive control functions in the PFC supporting the speed of lexical decisions. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-14T10:49:30Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-581abfbbdd554333ae90c7fd3081cc29 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1662-5161 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-14T10:49:30Z |
| publishDate | 2009-08-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Human Neuroscience |
| spelling | doaj.art-581abfbbdd554333ae90c7fd3081cc292022-12-21T23:05:18ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Human Neuroscience1662-51612009-08-01310.3389/neuro.09.020.2009607The modulatory influence of the functional COMT Val158Met polymorphism on lexical decisions and semantic primingMartin Reuter0Christian Montag1Kristina Peters2Anne Kocher3Markus Kiefer4University of BonnUniversity of BonnUniversity of GiessenUniversity of BonnUniversity of UlmThe role of the prefrontal Cortex (PFC) in higher cognitive functions - including working memory, conflict resolution, set shifting and semantic processing - has been demonstrated unequivocally. Despite the great heterogeneity among tasks measuring these phenotypes, due in part to the different cognitive sub-processes implied and the specificity of the stimulus material used, there is agreement that all of these tasks recruit an executive control system located in the PFC. On a biochemical level it is known that the dopaminergic system plays an important role in executive control functions. Evidence comes from molecular genetics relating the functional COMT Val158Met polymorphism to working memory and set shifting. In order determine whether this pattern of findings generalises to linguistic and semantic processing, we investigated the effects of the COMT Val158Met polymorphism in lexical decision making using masked and unmasked versions of the semantic priming paradigm on N=104 healthy subjects. Although we observed strong priming effects in all conditions (masked priming, unmasked priming with short/long stimulus asynchronies (SOAs), direct and indirect priming), COMT was not significantly related to masked priming, suggesting no reliable influence on semantic processing. However, COMT Val158Met was strongly associated with lexical decision latencies in all priming conditions if considered separately, explaining between 9 to 14.5 % of the variance. Therefore, the findings indicate that COMT mainly influences more general executive control functions in the PFC supporting the speed of lexical decisions.http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/neuro.09.020.2009/fullPrefrontal Cortexexecutive controlsemantic primingcatechol-O-methyltransferaseCOMT Val158Met polymorphism |
| spellingShingle | Martin Reuter Christian Montag Kristina Peters Anne Kocher Markus Kiefer The modulatory influence of the functional COMT Val158Met polymorphism on lexical decisions and semantic priming Frontiers in Human Neuroscience Prefrontal Cortex executive control semantic priming catechol-O-methyltransferase COMT Val158Met polymorphism |
| title | The modulatory influence of the functional COMT Val158Met polymorphism on lexical decisions and semantic priming |
| title_full | The modulatory influence of the functional COMT Val158Met polymorphism on lexical decisions and semantic priming |
| title_fullStr | The modulatory influence of the functional COMT Val158Met polymorphism on lexical decisions and semantic priming |
| title_full_unstemmed | The modulatory influence of the functional COMT Val158Met polymorphism on lexical decisions and semantic priming |
| title_short | The modulatory influence of the functional COMT Val158Met polymorphism on lexical decisions and semantic priming |
| title_sort | modulatory influence of the functional comt val158met polymorphism on lexical decisions and semantic priming |
| topic | Prefrontal Cortex executive control semantic priming catechol-O-methyltransferase COMT Val158Met polymorphism |
| url | http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/neuro.09.020.2009/full |
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