Referenced in: none

Automatically associated channels: TASK1

Title: Converging genetic and functional brain imaging evidence links neuronal excitability to working memory, psychiatric disease, and brain activity.

Authors: Angela Heck, Matthias Fastenrath, Sandra Ackermann, Bianca Auschra, Horst Bickel, David Coynel, Leo Gschwind, Frank Jessen, Hanna Kaduszkiewicz, Wolfgang Maier, Annette Milnik, Michael Pentzek, Steffi G Riedel-Heller, Stephan Ripke, Klara Spalek, Patrick Sullivan, Christian Vogler, Michael Wagner, Siegfried Weyerer, Steffen Wolfsgruber, Dominique J-F de Quervain, Andreas Papassotiropoulos

Journal, date & volume: Neuron, 2014 Mar 5 , 81, 1203-13

PubMed link: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24529980

Abstract
Working memory, the capacity of actively maintaining task-relevant information during a cognitive task, is a heritable trait. Working memory deficits are characteristic for many psychiatric disorders. We performed genome-wide gene set enrichment analyses in multiple independent data sets of young and aged cognitively healthy subjects (n = 2,824) and in a large schizophrenia case-control sample (n = 32,143). The voltage-gated cation channel activity gene set, consisting of genes related to neuronal excitability, was robustly linked to performance in working memory-related tasks across ages and to schizophrenia. Functional brain imaging in 707 healthy participants linked this gene set also to working memory-related activity in the parietal cortex and the cerebellum. Gene set analyses may help to dissect the molecular underpinnings of cognitive dimensions, brain activity, and psychopathology.