Title :
Association between Creativity and COMT Genotype
Author :
Lu, Liping ; Shi, Jiannong
Author_Institution :
Inst. of Psychol., Chinese Acad. of Sci., Beijing, China
Abstract :
Catechol-O-methyl transferase (COMT) influences dopamine concentration in the pre-frontal cortex (PFC). The G/A transition in the exon 4 of the COMT gene, which results in a valine (Val) to methionine (Met) amino acid substitution (Val158Met), can bring on different enzymatic activities. Much research has found that the Met/Met genotype associated with low enzymatic activity and may enhance cognitive function. Our research aimed to test the association between COMT genotype and creativity. We applied one-way ANOVA to detect the effect of the COMT genotypes to creative ability and creative potentials in 108 Chinese children with polymerase chain reaction (PCR) methods. COMT genotypes were not related to creative ability and creative potential except imagination. Val/Val carriers are more likely to imagine than Met/Met carriers (F (2, 105) =4.082, p=0.02). We also found that COMT Val158Met polymorphism had a significant main effect on intelligence (F (2, 102) = 3.47, p=0.035) and it could predict 4.7% of intelligence. Our results suggest that Met/Met genotype has a positive effect on intelligence but not on creative ability. However, we found no significant interaction between gender and COMT genotype to intelligence.
Keywords :
biochemistry; brain; cellular biophysics; cognition; enzymes; genetics; paediatrics; statistical analysis; COMT gene; COMT genotype; Met-Met carriers; Met-Met genotype; Val-Val carriers; catechol-o-methyl transferase; cognitive function; creative ability; creative potentials; dopamine concentration; gender; intelligence; methionine amino acid substitution; one-way ANOVA; polymerase chain reaction; pre-frontal cortex; valine amino acid substitution; Amino acids; Analysis of variance; Biochemistry; Biological information theory; Content addressable storage; Genetics; Humans; Polymers; Psychology; Testing;
Conference_Titel :
Bioinformatics and Biomedical Engineering (iCBBE), 2010 4th International Conference on
Conference_Location :
Chengdu
Print_ISBN :
978-1-4244-4712-1
Electronic_ISBN :
2151-7614
DOI :
10.1109/ICBBE.2010.5515671