Journal
DEVELOPMENTAL COGNITIVE NEUROSCIENCE
Volume 22, Issue -, Pages 36-47Publisher
ELSEVIER SCI LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.dcn.2016.10.002
Keywords
5-HTTLPR; Selective attention; Preschoolers; ERP
Categories
Funding
- Department of Education/Institute of Education Science [R305B070018]
- National Institutes of Health/National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders [R01 DC000481]
Ask authors/readers for more resources
While a growing body of research has identified experiential factors associated with differences in selective attention, relatively little is known about the contribution of genetic factors to the skill of sustained selective attention, especially in early childhood. Here, we assessed the association between the serotonin transporter linked polymorphic region (5-HTTLPR) genotypes and the neural mechanisms of selective attention in young children from lower socioeconomic status (SES) backgrounds. Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded during a dichotic listening task from 121 children (76 females, aged 40-67 months), who were also genotyped for the short and long allele of 5-HTTLPR. The effect of selective attention was measured as the difference in ERP mean amplitudes elicited by identical probe stimuli embedded in stories when they were attended versus unattended. Compared to children homozygous for the long allele, children who carried at least one copy of the short allele showed larger effects of selective attention on neural processing. These findings link the short allele of the 5-HTTLPR to enhanced neural mechanisms of selective attention and lay the groundwork for future studies of gene-by-environment interactions in the context of key cognitive skills. (C) 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available