Exploring the Connections between Platelet Monoamine Oxidase Activity and Behavior: Relationships with Performance in Neuropsychological Tasks

Abstract

Platelet MAO activity has been found to have behavioral (psychiatric and personality) correlates. The purpose of the present study was to explore the nature of the connections between platelet MAO activity and behavior by analyzing performance in neuropsychological tasks in relation to platelet MAO activity, measured in 37 male subjects. The following neuropsychological tests were given: a finger tapping and alternation test, a reaction time test, a perceptual maze test, a perspective fluctuation task (the Necker cube), and a lexical decision task. The reaction time tasks comprised a motor disinhibition task, in which auditory stimuli given simultaneously with light stimuli were signals for response inhibition. Significant relationships were obtained between low MAO activity and short response times and small variations in response times to left-sided visual stimuli, suggesting a readiness for higher right hemisphere activation in low MAO subjects, and between low platelet MAO activity and many perspective reversals, in line with expectations. Furthermore, high MAO subjects had equal tapping speed for both hands, which has been found in schizophrenic patients. Of special interest in the present results is the strong negative relationship obtained between platelet MAO activity and number of failed inhibitions in the motor disinhibition task, which in a multiple regression analysis highly significantly contributed to the prediction of platelet MAO activity. This finding is in line with the poor passive avoidance performance associated with serotonergic deficiency and syndromes of disinhibition, and thus supports the assumption that platelet MAO activity may be considered as a genetic marker for some properties of the central serotonergic system.