Count on dopamine: influences of COMT polymorphisms on numerical cognition

Catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) is an enzyme that is particularly important for the metabolism of dopamine. Functional polymorphisms of COMT have been implicated in working memory and numerical cognition. This is an exploratory study that aims at investigating associations between COMT polymorph...

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Main Authors:	Júlio-Costa, Annelise, Antunes, Andressa M., Lopes-Silva, Júlia B., Moreira, Bárbara C., Vianna, Gabrielle S., Wood, Guilherme, Carvalho, Maria R. S., Haase, Vitor G.
Format:	Online
Language:	English
Published:	Frontiers Media S.A. 2013
Online Access:	https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3744013/

id	pubmed-3744013
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	pubmed-37440132013-08-21 Count on dopamine: influences of COMT polymorphisms on numerical cognition Júlio-Costa, Annelise Antunes, Andressa M. Lopes-Silva, Júlia B. Moreira, Bárbara C. Vianna, Gabrielle S. Wood, Guilherme Carvalho, Maria R. S. Haase, Vitor G. Psychology Catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) is an enzyme that is particularly important for the metabolism of dopamine. Functional polymorphisms of COMT have been implicated in working memory and numerical cognition. This is an exploratory study that aims at investigating associations between COMT polymorphisms, working memory, and numerical cognition. Elementary school children from 2th to 6th grades were divided into two groups according to their COMT val158met polymorphism [homozygous for valine allele (n = 61) vs. heterozygous plus methionine homozygous children or met+ group (n = 94)]. Both groups were matched for age and intelligence. Working memory was assessed through digit span and Corsi blocks. Symbolic numerical processing was assessed through transcoding and single-digit word problem tasks. Non-symbolic magnitude comparison and estimation tasks were used to assess number sense. Between-group differences were found in symbolic and non-symbolic numerical tasks, but not in working memory tasks. Children in the met+ group showed better performance in all numerical tasks while val homozygous children presented slower development of non-symbolic magnitude representations. These results suggest COMT-related dopaminergic modulation may be related not only to working memory, as found in previous studies, but also to the development of magnitude processing and magnitude representations. Frontiers Media S.A. 2013-08-15 /pmc/articles/PMC3744013/ /pubmed/23966969 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00531 Text en Copyright © 2013 Júlio-Costa, Antunes, Lopes-Silva, Moreira, Vianna, Wood, Carvalho and Haase. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
repository_type	Open Access Journal
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	US National Center for Biotechnology Information
building	NCBI PubMed
collection	Online Access
language	English
format	Online
author	Júlio-Costa, Annelise Antunes, Andressa M. Lopes-Silva, Júlia B. Moreira, Bárbara C. Vianna, Gabrielle S. Wood, Guilherme Carvalho, Maria R. S. Haase, Vitor G.
spellingShingle	Júlio-Costa, Annelise Antunes, Andressa M. Lopes-Silva, Júlia B. Moreira, Bárbara C. Vianna, Gabrielle S. Wood, Guilherme Carvalho, Maria R. S. Haase, Vitor G. Count on dopamine: influences of COMT polymorphisms on numerical cognition
author_facet	Júlio-Costa, Annelise Antunes, Andressa M. Lopes-Silva, Júlia B. Moreira, Bárbara C. Vianna, Gabrielle S. Wood, Guilherme Carvalho, Maria R. S. Haase, Vitor G.
author_sort	Júlio-Costa, Annelise
title	Count on dopamine: influences of COMT polymorphisms on numerical cognition
title_short	Count on dopamine: influences of COMT polymorphisms on numerical cognition
title_full	Count on dopamine: influences of COMT polymorphisms on numerical cognition
title_fullStr	Count on dopamine: influences of COMT polymorphisms on numerical cognition
title_full_unstemmed	Count on dopamine: influences of COMT polymorphisms on numerical cognition
title_sort	count on dopamine: influences of comt polymorphisms on numerical cognition
description	Catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) is an enzyme that is particularly important for the metabolism of dopamine. Functional polymorphisms of COMT have been implicated in working memory and numerical cognition. This is an exploratory study that aims at investigating associations between COMT polymorphisms, working memory, and numerical cognition. Elementary school children from 2th to 6th grades were divided into two groups according to their COMT val158met polymorphism [homozygous for valine allele (n = 61) vs. heterozygous plus methionine homozygous children or met+ group (n = 94)]. Both groups were matched for age and intelligence. Working memory was assessed through digit span and Corsi blocks. Symbolic numerical processing was assessed through transcoding and single-digit word problem tasks. Non-symbolic magnitude comparison and estimation tasks were used to assess number sense. Between-group differences were found in symbolic and non-symbolic numerical tasks, but not in working memory tasks. Children in the met+ group showed better performance in all numerical tasks while val homozygous children presented slower development of non-symbolic magnitude representations. These results suggest COMT-related dopaminergic modulation may be related not only to working memory, as found in previous studies, but also to the development of magnitude processing and magnitude representations.
publisher	Frontiers Media S.A.
publishDate	2013
url	https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3744013/
_version_	1612003245623869440

Count on dopamine: influences of COMT polymorphisms on numerical cognition

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