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Genetic Variation of COMT Impacts Mindfulness and Self-Reported Everyday Cognitive Failures but Not Self-Rated Attentional Control

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Abstract

The present study aimed to investigate potential associations between mindfulness and two prominent “cognitive” personality questionnaires (attentional control scale (ACS) and the cognitive failures questionnaire (CFQ)). Moreover, all participants (N = 537, n = 384 females; mean age = 23.30; SD = 5.15) provided buccal swaps for genotyping a classic polymorphism (COMT Val158Met/rs4680) known to influence dopaminergic catabolism on the biochemical level, as well as cognitive functions on a psychological level. Our results show that mindfulness is robustly linked to the ACS (positively) and the CFQ (negatively). The Met/Met genotype of the COMT polymorphism was associated with lower mindfulness (F(1, 535) = 8.27, p = .004; allele level) and higher everyday cognitive failure (F(1, 535) = 9.23, p = .003; allele level). But no significant effects of COMT Val158Met genotype could be observed for attentional control. The present findings provide evidence that the genetic COMT make up of a person could in parts explain self-reported skills in mindfulness and everyday cognitive failure. Based on the direction of the results, possible underlying factors are discussed. As such, COMT effects on an affective facet, which underlies mindfulness and everyday cognitive failures but not attentional control, may drive the effects. As still only a small part of the variance in the constructs is explained by the COMT polymorphism, potentially more genetic polymorphisms should additionally be taken into account in future studies to explain more variance. Genes involved in the dopaminergic neurotransmission seem to be an optimal starting point.

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Funding

This study was supported by the German Research Foundation as the position of Christian Montag is funded by a Heisenberg grant awarded to him by the German Research Foundation (DFG, MO 2363/3-2). CS is stipend of the German Academic Scholarship Foundation (Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes).

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    Authors and Affiliations

    1. Department of Molecular Psychology, Institute for Psychology and Education, Ulm University, Helmholtzstr. 8/1, 89081, Ulm, Germany

      Cornelia Sindermann, Sonja Jung & Christian Montag

    2. Department of Psychology, Humboldt University Berlin, Unter den Linden 6, 10099, Berlin, Germany

      Sebastian Markett

    3. The Clinical Hospital of Chengdu Brain Science Institute, MOE Key Laboratory for Neuroinformation, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, No 2006, Xiyuan Ave, West Hi-Tech Zone, Chengdu, 611731, China

      Christian Montag

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    1. Cornelia Sindermann
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    Contributions

    CS managed the literature searches, implemented statistical analyses, and wrote the manuscript (together with SM). SM designed the study, wrote the protocol (together with CM), wrote the manuscript (together with CS), and checked the statistical analyses. SJ did all genetic analyses and checked the statistical analyses independently. CM designed the study, wrote the protocol (together with SM), and worked over the manuscript to improve it. All authors contributed to and have approved the final manuscript. Cornelia Sindermann and Sebastian Markett share the first authorship on this manuscript.

    Cornelia Sindermann and Sebastian Markett contributed equally to this work.

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    Correspondence to Cornelia Sindermann.

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    All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. The study was approved by the local ethic committee at Ulm University, Ulm, Germany (https://www.uni-ulm.de/einrichtungen/ethikkommission-der-universitaet-ulm/).

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    Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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    Sindermann, C., Markett, S., Jung, S. et al. Genetic Variation of COMT Impacts Mindfulness and Self-Reported Everyday Cognitive Failures but Not Self-Rated Attentional Control. Mindfulness 9, 1479–1485 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-018-0893-4

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