Background
Studies in humans and in animals have demonstrated that a network of brain regions
is involved in performance of declarative and recognition memory tasks. This network
includes the hippocampal formation (HF) as well as the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex
(VLPFC). Studies in animals have suggested that the relationship between these brain
regions is strongly modulated by dopamine.
Methods
Using fMRI in healthy humans matched for a series of demographic and genetic variables,
we studied the effect of the COMT val158met polymorphism on function of HF and VLPFC
as well as on their functional coupling during recognition memory.
Results
The COMT Val allele was associated with: relatively poorer performance at retrieval;
reduced recruitment of neuronal resources in HF and increased recruitment in VLPFC
during both encoding and retrieval; and unfavorable functional coupling between these
two regions at retrieval. Moreover, functional coupling during retrieval was predictive
of behavioral accuracy.
Conclusions
These results shed new light on individual differences in responsivity and connectivity
between HF and VLPFC related to genetic modulation of dopamine, a mechanism accounting
at least in part for individual differences in recognition memory performance.
Key Words
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: September 04, 2006
Accepted:
March 28,
2006
Received in revised form:
March 24,
2006
Received:
December 5,
2005
Identification
Copyright
© 2006 Society of Biological Psychiatry. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
