Association of gender, age, education and polymorphism of DRD4 gene with cognitive functions in adults

Abstract

To assess the association of cognitive functions with gender, age, education and polymorphism of dopamine receptor D4 (DRD4) gene in healthy adults. Four hundred and fifty-five healthy participants have completed 3 cognitive function tests including Tower of Hanoi (TOH), Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) and Trail Making Test (TMT). Peripheral blood samples were collected from all participants, and genomic DNA was extracted according to a standard phenol-chloroform procedure. Rs3758653 in the promoter region of the DRD4 gene was genotyped using Illumina GoldenGate genotyping assay. Males have performed better than females in terms of TOH executive time and TOH total score, but did worse in TOH planning time. Most of the measured cognitive domains were affected by age and education. Cognitive ability has decreased along with increased age and decline of educational years. The polymorphism of rs3758653 has mainly correlated with the TOH executive time. Compared with A allele carriers, G allele carriers did worse in TOH executive time. Gender, age, education and the rs3758653 polymorphism of the DRD4 gene play an important role in cognitive functions in healthy adults.