title: Dopamine system genes are associated with orienting bias among healthy individuals.
abstract: Healthy individuals display subtle orienting bias, manifested as a tendency to direct greater attention toward one hemispace, and evidence suggests that this bias reflects an individual trait, which may be modulated by asymmetric dopamine signaling in striatal and frontal regions. The current study examined the hypothesis that functional genetic variants within dopaminergic genes (DAT1 3' VNTR, dopamine D2 receptor Taq1A (rs1800497) and COMT Val158Met (rs4680)) contribute to individual differences in orienting bias, as measured by the greyscales paradigm, in a sample of 197 young healthy Israeli Jewish participants. For the Taq1A variant, homozygous carriers of the A2 allele displayed significantly increased leftward orienting bias compared to the carriers of the A1 allele. Additionally, and as previously reported by others, we found that bias towards leftward orienting of attention was significantly greater among carriers of the 9-repeat allele of the DAT1 3' VNTR as compared to the individuals who were homozygous for the 10-repeat allele. No significant effect of the COMT Val158Met on orienting bias was found. Taken together, our findings support the potential influence of genetic variants on inter-individual differences in orienting bias, a phenotype relevant to both normal and impaired cognitive processes.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Haifa, 199 Abba Khoushy Ave., Mount Carmel Haifa 3498838, Israel.
authors.forename: Polina
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Zozulinsky
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Chaim Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer, Hashomer, Israel; The Josheph Sagol Neuroscience center (JSNC), Chaim Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer, Israel.
authors.forename: Lior
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Greenbaum
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Haifa, 199 Abba Khoushy Ave., Mount Carmel Haifa 3498838, Israel.
authors.forename: Noa
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Brande-Eilat
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Haifa, 199 Abba Khoushy Ave., Mount Carmel Haifa 3498838, Israel.
authors.forename: Yair
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Braun
authors.affiliation: Department of Biobehavioral Health, Pennsylvania State University, United States.
authors.forename: Idan
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Shalev
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Haifa, 199 Abba Khoushy Ave., Mount Carmel Haifa 3498838, Israel. Electronic address: rachel.tomer@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Rachel
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Tomer
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D015982:Bias; D002394:Catechol O-Methyltransferase / Q000235:genetics*; D050483:Dopamine Plasma Membrane Transport Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000235:genetics*; D056726:Genetic Association Studies; D005838:Genotype; D006801:Humans; D007206:Individuality; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D018598:Minisatellite Repeats / Q000235:genetics; D009949:Orientation / Q000502:physiology*; D020641:Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide / Q000235:genetics; D017448:Receptors, Dopamine D2 / Q000235:genetics; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D050483:Dopamine Plasma Membrane Transport Proteins; D017448:Receptors, Dopamine D2; D002394:Catechol O-Methyltransferase
keywords: Asymmetry; DAT1; DRD2 Taq1A; Dopamine; Orienting; Spatial attention