COMT Val(158) Met genotype is associated with reward learning: a replication study and meta-analysis.

Genes Brain Behav
Authors
Keywords
Abstract

Identifying mechanisms through which individual differences in reward learning emerge offers an opportunity to understand both a fundamental form of adaptive responding as well as etiological pathways through which aberrant reward learning may contribute to maladaptive behaviors and psychopathology. One candidate mechanism through which individual differences in reward learning may emerge is variability in dopaminergic reinforcement signaling. A common functional polymorphism within the catechol-O-methyl transferase gene (COMT; rs4680, Val(158) Met) has been linked to reward learning, where homozygosity for the Met allele (linked to heightened prefrontal dopamine function and decreased dopamine synthesis in the midbrain) has been associated with relatively increased reward learning. Here, we used a probabilistic reward learning task to asses response bias, a behavioral form of reward learning, across three separate samples that were combined for analyses (age: 21.80 ± 3.95; n = 392; 268 female; European-American: n = 208). We replicate prior reports that COMT rs4680 Met allele homozygosity is associated with increased reward learning in European-American participants (β = 0.20, t = 2.75, P

Year of Publication
2016
Journal
Genes Brain Behav
Volume
15
Issue
5
Pages
503-13
Date Published
2016 06
ISSN
1601-183X
URL
DOI
10.1111/gbb.12296
PubMed ID
27138112
PubMed Central ID
PMC4891272
Links
Grant list
R01 MH101521 / MH / NIMH NIH HHS / United States
R01 AG049789 / AG / NIA NIH HHS / United States
R01 DA033369 / DA / NIDA NIH HHS / United States
R01 MH068376 / MH / NIMH NIH HHS / United States
R01 DA031579 / DA / NIDA NIH HHS / United States
R01 AG045231 / AG / NIA NIH HHS / United States
T32 MH014677 / MH / NIMH NIH HHS / United States
T32 GM081739 / GM / NIGMS NIH HHS / United States