title: Effects of l-Tyrosine on working memory and inhibitory control are determined by DRD2 genotypes: A randomized controlled trial.
abstract: l-Tyrosine (TYR), the precursor of dopamine (DA), has been shown to enhance facets of cognitive control in situations with high cognitive demands. However some previous outcomes were mixed: some studies reported significant improvements, while other did not. Given that TYR increases DA level in the brain, we investigated, in a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled design, whether the C957T genotypes of a functional synonymous polymorphism in the human dopamine D2 receptor (DRD2) gene (rs6277) contribute to individual differences in the reactivity to TYR administration and whether this factor predicts the magnitude of TYR-induced performance differences on inhibiting behavioral responses in a stop-signal task and working memory (WM) updating in a N-back task. Our findings show that T/T homozygotes (i.e., individuals potentially associated with lower striatal DA level) showed larger beneficial effects of TYR supplementation than C/C homozygotes (i.e., individuals potentially associated with higher striatal DA level), suggesting that genetically determined differences in DA function may explain inter-individual differences in response to TYR supplementation. These findings reinforce the idea that genetic predisposition modulates the effect of TYR in its role as cognitive enhancer.
authors.affiliation: Leiden University, Cognitive Psychology Unit & Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden, The Netherlands. Electronic address: colzato@fsw.leidenuniv.nl.
authors.forename: Lorenza S
authors.initials: LS
authors.lastname: Colzato
authors.affiliation: Leiden University, Cognitive Psychology Unit & Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Laura
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Steenbergen
authors.affiliation: Leiden University, Cognitive Psychology Unit & Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Roberta
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Sellaro
authors.affiliation: Cognitive Neurophysiology, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine of the TU Dresden, Dresden, Germany.
authors.forename: Ann-Kathrin
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Stock
authors.affiliation: Department of Human Genetics, Medical Faculty, Ruhr-University Bochum, Bochum, Germany.
authors.forename: Larissa
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Arning
authors.affiliation: Cognitive Neurophysiology, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine of the TU Dresden, Dresden, Germany; Experimental Neurobiology, National Institute of Mental Healthy, Klecany, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Beste
mesh_terms: D004311:Double-Blind Method; D005260:Female; D005838:Genotype; D006801:Humans; D007206:Individuality; D007266:Inhibition, Psychological; D008297:Male; D008570:Memory, Short-Term / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010597:Pharmacogenetics; D020641:Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide; D017448:Receptors, Dopamine D2 / Q000235:genetics*; D014443:Tyrosine / Q000494:pharmacology*; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: C581293:DRD2 protein, human; D017448:Receptors, Dopamine D2; D014443:Tyrosine
keywords: DRD2; Dopamine; Individual differences; Tyrosine; Working memory