Genetic Epidemiology, Translational Neurogenomics, Psychiatric Genetics and Statistical Genetics Laboratories investigate the pattern of disease in families, particularly identical and non-identical twins, to assess the relative importance of genes and environment in a variety of important health problems.
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PMID
19077115
TITLE
Replication study of candidate genes for cognitive abilities: the Lothian Birth Cohort 1936.
ABSTRACT
As the proportion of older people in societies has increased, research into the determinants of cognitive ageing has risen in importance. Genetic influences account for over 50% of the variance in adult cognitive abilities. Previous studies on cognition and illnesses with cognitive impairments have identified single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) within candidate genes that might influence cognition or age-related cognitive change. This study investigated 10 candidate genes in over 1000 Scots: the Lothian Birth Cohort 1936 (LBC1936). These participants were tested on general cognitive ability (Scottish Mental Survey 1947) at age 11. At mean age 70, they completed the same general cognitive ability test and a battery of diverse cognitive tests. Nineteen SNPs in 10 genes previously associated with cognition, Alzheimer's disease or autism were genotyped in 1063 individuals. The genes include BDNF, COMT, DISC1, KL, NCSTN, PPP1R1B, PRNP, SHANK3, SORL1 and WRN. Linear regression analysis investigated the additive effect of each SNP on the cognitive variables, covarying for gender and age. Childhood cognitive ability was also included as a covariate to identify associations specifically with cognitive ageing. Certain SNPs reached the conventional significance threshold for association with cognitive traits or cognitive ageing in LBC1936 (P < 0.05). No SNPs reached the Bonferroni-level of significance (all P > 0.0015). Of the 10 genes, we discuss that COMT, KL, PRNP, PPP1R1B, SORL1 and WRN especially merit further attention for association with cognitive ability and/or age-related cognitive change. All results are also presented so that they are valuable for future meta-analyses of candidate genes for cognition.
DATE PUBLISHED
2009 Mar
HISTORY
PUBSTATUS PUBSTATUSDATE
aheadofprint 2008/12/10
entrez 2008/12/17 09:00
pubmed 2008/12/17 09:00
medline 2009/06/27 09:00
AUTHORS
NAME COLLECTIVENAME LASTNAME FORENAME INITIALS AFFILIATION AFFILIATIONINFO
Houlihan LM Houlihan L M LM Centre for Cognitive Ageing and Cognitive Epidemiology, Department of Psychology, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK.
Harris SE Harris S E SE
Luciano M Luciano M M
Gow AJ Gow A J AJ
Starr JM Starr J M JM
Visscher PM Visscher P M PM
Deary IJ Deary I J IJ
INVESTIGATORS
JOURNAL
VOLUME: 8
ISSUE: 2
TITLE: Genes, brain, and behavior
ISOABBREVIATION: Genes Brain Behav.
YEAR: 2009
MONTH: Mar
DAY:
MEDLINEDATE:
SEASON:
CITEDMEDIUM: Internet
ISSN: 1601-183X
ISSNTYPE: Electronic
MEDLINE JOURNAL
MEDLINETA: Genes Brain Behav
COUNTRY: England
ISSNLINKING: 1601-183X
NLMUNIQUEID: 101129617
PUBLICATION TYPE
PUBLICATIONTYPE TEXT
Journal Article
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
COMMENTS AND CORRECTIONS
GRANTS
GRANTID AGENCY COUNTRY
G0700704B Medical Research Council United Kingdom
Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council United Kingdom
Medical Research Council United Kingdom
GENERAL NOTE
KEYWORDS
MESH HEADINGS
DESCRIPTORNAME QUALIFIERNAME
Aged
Aging psychology
Child psychology
Cognition physiology
Cohort Studies physiology
Female physiology
Gene Frequency physiology
Genotype physiology
Humans physiology
Intelligence physiology
Intelligence Tests physiology
Male physiology
Neuropsychological Tests physiology
Phenotype physiology
Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide genetics
Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction genetics
Scotland genetics
SUPPLEMENTARY MESH
GENE SYMBOLS
CHEMICALS
OTHER ID's