COMT polymorphism and memory dedifferentiation in old age

Research output: Contribution to journalResearch articleContributedpeer-review

Contributors

  • Goran Papenberg - , Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Aging Research Center (ARC) (Author)
  • Lars Bäckman - , Aging Research Center (ARC) (Author)
  • Irene E. Nagel - , Free University of Berlin (Author)
  • Wilfried Nietfeld - , Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics (Author)
  • Julia Schröder - , Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin (Author)
  • Lars Bertram - , Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics (Author)
  • Hauke R. Heekeren - , Free University of Berlin (Author)
  • Ulman Lindenberger - , Max Planck Institute for Human Development (Author)
  • Shu Chen Li - , Chair of Lifespan Developmental Neuroscience, Max Planck Institute for Human Development (Author)

Abstract

According to a neurocomputational theory of cognitive aging, senescent changes in dopaminergic modulation lead to noisier and less differentiated processing. The authors tested a corollary hypothesis of this theory, according to which genetic predispositions of individual differences in prefrontal dopamine (DA) signaling may affect associations between memory functions, particularly in old age. Latent correlations between factors of verbal episodic memory and spatial working memory were compared between individuals carrying different allelic variants of the Catechol-O-Methyltransferase (COMT) Val158Met polymorphism, which influences DA availability in prefrontal cortex. In younger adults (n = 973), correlations between memory functions did not differ significantly among the 3 COMT genotypes (r = .35); in older adults (n = 1333), however, the correlation was significantly higher in Val homozygotes (r = .70), whose prefrontal DA availability is supposedly the lowest of all groups examined, than in heterozygotes and Met homozygotes (both rs = .29). Latent means of the episodic memory and working memory factors did not differ by COMT status within age groups. However, when restricting the analysis to the low-performing tertile of older adults (n = 443), we found that Val homozygotes showed lower levels of performance in both episodic memory and working memory than heterozygotes and Met homozygotes. In line with the neurocomputational theory, the observed dedifferentiation of memory functions in older Val homozygotes suggests that suboptimal dopaminergic modulation may underlie multiple facets of memory declines during aging. Future longitudinal work needs to test this conjecture more directly.

Details

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)374-383
Number of pages10
JournalPsychology and aging
Volume29
Issue number2
Publication statusPublished - Jun 2014
Peer-reviewedYes

External IDs

Scopus 84902957022
PubMed 23834492

Keywords

Keywords

  • Aging, COMT, Dedifferentiation, Dopamine, Memory