Archival ReportMeta-Analysis of the Cognitive Effects of the Catechol-O-Methyltransferase Gene Val158/108Met Polymorphism
Section snippets
Search Strategy and Inclusion Criteria
The PubMed database was searched to the end of August 2007 using combinations of the terms ācatechol-O-methyltransferaseā or āCOMTā and ācognitive,ā ācognition,ā āIQ,ā āintelligence,ā āmemory,ā āexecutive,ā āWisconsin Card Sort*,ā and āattention.ā Studies were excluded for the following reasons: no cognitive data reported, sample comprised patients with 22q11 deletion syndrome (who have only one copy of the COMT gene), groups matched by cognitive function, studies of a different COMT
Characteristics of Included Studies
The final dataset of 46 studies comprised 67 independent samples published between 2001 and 2007 where cognitive data was reported by COMT Val158/108Met genotype. These studies are described in Supplement 1.
Meta-analysis
Analyses were conducted separately for the following phenotypes: Trail Making task, verbal fluency, verbal recall, IQ score, n-back task accuracy, and Wisconsin Card Sorting Test perseverative errors.
Discussion
Meta-analyses showed no association between the COMT Val158/108Met variant and indices of memory or executive function, with the exception of a small association between genotype and n-back task performance in the opposite direction from that hypothesized, with evidence of significant between-study heterogeneity. When patient and nonpatient samples were considered separately, these effect sizes differed significantly, although in each case significant between-study heterogeneity remained. There
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