Cognitive control and the COMT Val158Met polymorphism: genetic modulation of videogame training and transfer to task-switching efficiency
- Lorenza S. Colzato,
- Wery P. M. van den Wildenberg,
- Bernhard Hommel
- … show all 3 hide
Rent the article at a discount
Rent now* Final gross prices may vary according to local VAT.
Get AccessAbstract
The study investigated whether successful transfer of game-based cognitive improvements to untrained tasks might be modulated by preexisting neuro-developmental factors, such as genetic variability related to the catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT)—an enzyme responsible for the degradation of dopamine. The COMT Val158Met genotype may differentially affect cognitive stability and flexibility, and we hypothesized that Val/Val homozygous individuals (who possess low prefrontal dopamine levels) show more pronounced cognitive flexibility than Met/-carriers (who possess high prefrontal dopamine levels). We trained participants, genotyped for the COMT Val158Met polymorphism on playing “Half-Life 2”, a first-person shooter game which has been shown to improve cognitive flexibility. Pre-training (baseline) and post-training measures of cognitive flexibility were acquired by means of a task-switching paradigm. As expected, Val/Val homozygous individuals showed larger beneficial transfer effects than Met/-carriers. Our findings support the idea that genetic predisposition modulates transfer effects and that playing first-person shooter games promotes cognitive flexibility in individuals with a suitable genetic predisposition.
- Bilder, R, Volavka, K, Lachman, H, Grace, A (2004) The Catechol-O-methyltransferase polymorphism: relations to the tonic-phasic dopamine hypothesis and neuropsychiatric phenotypes. Neuropsychopharmacology 29: pp. 1943-1961 CrossRef
- Boot, WR, Blakely, DP, Simons, DJ (2011) Do action video games improve perception and cognition?. Front Psychology 2: pp. 226 CrossRef
- Boot, WR, Kramer, AF, Simons, DJ, Fabiani, M, Gratton, G (2008) The effects of video game playing on attention, memory, and executive control. Acta Psychologica 129: pp. 387-398 CrossRef
- Brehmer, Y, Westerberg, H, Bellander, M, Fürth, D, Karlsson, S, Bäckman, L (2009) Working memory plasticity modulated by dopamine transporter genotype. Neuroscience Letters 467: pp. 117-120 CrossRef
- Castel, AD, Pratt, J, Drummond, E (2005) The effects of action video game experience on the time course of inhibition of return and the efficiency of visual search. Acta Psychologica 119: pp. 217-230 CrossRef
- Chen, J, Lipska, BK, Halim, N, Ma, QD, Matsumoto, M, Melhem, S (2004) Functional analysis of genetic variation in catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT): effects on mRNA, protein, and enzyme activity in postmortem human brain. American Journal Human Genetics 75: pp. 807-821 CrossRef
- Clark, K, Fleck, MS, MitroV, SR (2011) Enhanced change detection performance reveals improved strategy use in avid action video game players. Acta Psychologica 136: pp. 67-72 CrossRef
- Colzato, LS, Wildenberg, W, Zmigrod, S, Hommel, B (2013) Action video gaming and cognitive control: playing first person shooter games is associated with improvement in working memory but not action inhibition. Psychological Research 77: pp. 234-239 CrossRef
- Colzato, LS, Leeuwen, PJA, Wildenberg, WPM, Hommel, B (2010) DOOM’d to switch: superior cognitive flexibility in players of first person shooter games. Frontiers in Psychology 1: pp. 8
- Colzato, LS, Wouwe, NC, Lavender, T, Hommel, B (2006) Intelligence and cognitive flexibility: fluid intelligence correlates with feature “unbinding” across perception and action. Psychonomic Bulletin and Review 13: pp. 1043-1048 CrossRef
- Colzato, LS, Waszak, F, Nieuwenhuis, S, Posthuma, D, Hommel, B (2010) The flexible mind is associated with the Catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) Val158Met polymorphism: evidence for a role of dopamine in the control of task switching. Neuropsychologia 48: pp. 2764-2768 CrossRef
- Cools, R (2006) Dopaminergic modulation of cognitive function: implication for L-DOPA therapy in Parkinson’s disease. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews 30: pp. 1-34 CrossRef
- Cools, R, D’Esposito, M Dopaminergic modulation of flexible cognitive control in humans. In: Björklund, A, Dunnett, S, Iversen, L, Iversen, S eds. (2010) Dopamine handbook. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp. 249-260
- Crofts, HS, Dalley, JW, Denderen, JCM, Everitt, BJ, Robbins, TW, Roberts, AC (2001) Differential effects of 6-OHDA lesions of the frontal cortex and caudate nucleus on the ability to acquire an attentional set. Cerebral Cortex 11: pp. 1015-1026 CrossRef
- Oragene™ product brochure. DNA Genotek Inc., Ottawa
- Ettinger, U., Kumari, V., Collier, D. A., Powell, J., Luzi, S., Michel, T. M., Zedomi, O., & Williams, S. C. R. (2008). Catechol-O-Methyltransferase (COMT) Val158Met genotype is associated with BOLD response as a function of task characteristic. Neuropsychopharmacology, 33, 3046–3057.
- Goschke, T Involuntary persistence and intentional reconfiguration in task-set switching. In: Monsell, S, Driver, J eds. (2000) Attention and performance XVIII: control of cognitive processes. MIT Press, Cambridge, pp. 331-355
- Green, CS, Bavelier, D (2003) Action video game modifies visual selective attention. Nature 423: pp. 534-537 CrossRef
- Green, CS, Bavelier, D (2006) Enumeration versus multiple object tracking: the case of action video game players. Cognition 101: pp. 217-245 CrossRef
- Green, CS, Bavelier, D (2006) Effect of action video games on the spatial distribution of visuospatial attention. Journal of Experimental Psychology Human Perception and Performance 32: pp. 1465-1468 CrossRef
- Green, CS, Bavelier, D (2007) Action-video-game experience alters the spatial resolution of attention. Psychological Science 18: pp. 88-94 CrossRef
- Green, CS, Sugarman, MA, Medford, K, Klobusicky, E, Bavelier, D (2012) The effect of action video games on task switching. Computers in Human Behavior 12: pp. 984-994 CrossRef
- Karle, JW, Watter, S, Shedden, JM (2010) Task switching in video game players: benefits of selective attention but not resistance to proactive interference. Acta Psychologica 134: pp. 70-78 CrossRef
- Kray, J, Li, KZH, Lindenberger, U (2002) Age-related changes in task-switching components: the role of task uncertainty. Brain and Cognition 49: pp. 363-381 CrossRef
- Lachman, HM, Papolos, DF, Saito, T, Yu, YM, Szumlanski, CL, Weinshilboum, RM (1996) Human catechol-O-methyltransferase pharmacogenetics: description of a functional polymorphism and its potential application to neuropsychiatric disorders. Pharmacogenetics 6: pp. 243-250 CrossRef
- Marenco, S, Radulescu, E (2010) Imaging genetics of structural brain connectivity and neural integrity markers. Neuroimage 53: pp. 848-856 CrossRef
- Miyake, A, Friedman, NP, Emerson, MJ, Witzki, AH, Howerter, A, Wager, T (2000) The unity and diversity of executive functions and their contributions to complex “frontal lobe” tasks: a latent variable analysis. Cognitive Psychology 41: pp. 49-100 CrossRef
- Monsell, S (2003) Task switching. Trends in Cognitive Science 7: pp. 134-140 CrossRef
- Nolan, K, Bilder, R, Lachman, H, Volavka, K (2004) Catechol-O-methyltransferase Val158Met polymorphism in schizophrenia: differential effects of Val and Met alleles on cognitive stability and flexibility. American Journal Psychiatry 161: pp. 359-361 CrossRef
- Navon, D. (1977). Forest before trees: the precedence of global features in visual perception. Cognitive Psychology, 9, 353–383.
- Owen, AM, Hampshire, A, Grahn, JA, Stenton, R, Dajani, S, Burns, AS, Howard, RJ, Ballard, CG (2010) Putting brain training to the test. Nature 465: pp. 775-778 CrossRef
- Raven, JC, Court, JH, Raven, J (1988) Manual for Raven’s progressive matrices and vocabulary scales. Lewis, London
- Roberts, AC, Salvia, MA, Wilkinson, LS, Collins, P, Muir, JL, Everitt, BJ, Robbins, TW (1994) 6-Hydroxydopamine lesions of the prefrontal cortex in monkeys enhance performance on an analog of the wisconsin card sort test: possible interactions with subcortical dopamine. Journal of Neuroscience 14: pp. 2531-2544
- Schott, BH, Seidenbecher, CI, Fenker, DB, Lauer, CJ, Bunzeck, N, Bernstein, H-G (2006) The dopaminergic midbrain participates in human episodic memory formation: evidence from genetic imaging. Journal of Neuroscience 26: pp. 1407-1417 CrossRef
- Strobach, T, Frensch, PA, Schubert, T (2012) Video game practice optimizes executive control skills in dual-task and task switching situations. Acta Psychologica 140: pp. 13-24 CrossRef
- Takeuchi, H, Sekiguchi, A, Taki, Y, Yokoyama, S, Yomogida, Y, Komuro, N (2010) Training of working memory impacts structural connectivity. Journal of Neuroscience 30: pp. 3297-3303 CrossRef
- Colzato, LS, Muiden, J, Band, G, Hommel, B (2011) Genetic modulation of training and transfer in older adults: BDNF Val66Met polymorphism is associated with wider useful field of view. Frontiers in Cognition.
- Title
- Cognitive control and the COMT Val158Met polymorphism: genetic modulation of videogame training and transfer to task-switching efficiency
- Journal
-
Psychological Research
Volume 78, Issue 5 , pp 670-678
- Cover Date
- 2014-09-01
- DOI
- 10.1007/s00426-013-0514-8
- Print ISSN
- 0340-0727
- Online ISSN
- 1430-2772
- Publisher
- Springer Berlin Heidelberg
- Additional Links
- Topics
- Industry Sectors
- Authors
-
-
Lorenza S. Colzato
(1)
(3)
- Wery P. M. van den Wildenberg (2)
- Bernhard Hommel (1)
-
Lorenza S. Colzato
- Author Affiliations
-
- 1. Institute for Psychological Research and Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands
- 3. Department of Psychology, Cognitive Psychology Unit, Leiden University, Postbus 9555, 2300 RB, Leiden, The Netherlands
- 2. Amsterdam Center for the Study of Adaptive Control in Brain and Behaviour (Acacia), Psychology Department, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands