Dopamine and cognitive control: the influence of spontaneous eyeblink rate, DRD4 exon III polymorphism and gender on flexibility in set-shifting.
Converging evidence suggests a modulatory role of dopamine in cognitive control. We investigated the influence of two correlates of dopaminergic activity, the spontaneous eyeblink rate and the DRD4 exon III polymorphism, and the potential impact of gender on flexibility in an attentional set-shifting paradigm. The objective of the study was to confirm previous findings of an association between high eyeblink rates and increased cognitive flexibility. These findings were replicated in 87 healthy volunteers this time using a continuous variable for eyeblink rates instead of a dichotomized variable. The interaction between eyeblink rate and DRD4 found in the previous study was lower and failed significance. Analysis of the collapsed sample of n=150 revealed a main effect of gender and an interaction of gender and eyeblink rate on cognitive control. The complete prediction model explained 26% of the total variance. These data suggest that (1) the eyeblink rate is a reliable predictor of dopamine-mediated flexibility of cognitive control and (2) it is useful to include gender as predictor in future studies of dopaminergic modulation of cognitive control.
Müller
Johannes
J
Institute of Psychology II, Dresden University of Technology, Zellescher Weg 17, 01069 Dresden, Germany. johannes.mueller@tu-dresden.de
Dreisbach
Gesine
G
Brocke
Burkhard
B
Lesch
Klaus-Peter
KP
Strobel
Alexander
A
Goschke
Thomas
T
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology; D001767:Blinking / Q000235:genetics*; D001921:Brain / Q000378:metabolism; D001923:Brain Chemistry / Q000235:genetics*; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D004298:Dopamine / Q000378:metabolism*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011110:Polymorphism, Genetic; D050638:Receptors, Dopamine D4 / Q000235:genetics*; D012727:Sex Characteristics; D009435:Synaptic Transmission / Q000235:genetics
C493599:DRD4 protein, human; D050638:Receptors, Dopamine D4; D004298:Dopamine