Influence of the SLC6A3-DAT1 Gene on Multifaceted Measures of Self-regulation in Preschool Children.

Lina M Cómbita,M Rosario Rueda,Alicia Abundis-Gutiérrez,Joan P Pozuelos,Pascale Voelker

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00026

Lina M Cómbita, M Rosario Rueda + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00026

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Abstract

Development of self-regulation, the capacity to voluntarily modulate thoughts, emotions and actions is strongly related to the maturation of the dopamine-mediated executive attention network (EAN). The attention control processes associated with the EAN greatly overlap with efficiency of the executive functions and are correlated with measures of effortful control. Regulation of dopamine levels within the EAN, particularly in the basal ganglia is carried out by the action of dopamine transporters. In humans, the SLC6A3/DAT1 gene carries out the synthesis of the DAT protein. The 10-repeat allele has been associated with an enhanced expression of the gene and has been related to ADHD symptoms. Little is known about the impact of DAT1 variations on children's capacity to self-regulate in contexts that impose particular demands of regulatory control such as the school or home. This study defines a multi-domain phenotype of self-regulation and examines whether variations of the DAT1 gene accounts for individual differences in performance in 4–5 year old children. Results show that presence of the 10r allele is related to a diminished ability to exert voluntary regulation of reactivity. These findings shed light on the neurobiological mechanisms underlying individual differences in self-regulation during childhood.

Highlights

Self-regulation (SR), the capacity to voluntarily modulate thoughts, emotions, and actions, has been found to positively influence social adjustment as well as cognitive and academic performance from early childhood and adolescence (Checa and Rueda, 2011; Eisenberg et al, 2011) to adulthood (Moffitt et al, 2011).The development of SR skills is related to the maturation of the executive attention network (EAN), a neural system involving the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and the basal ganglia (Posner and Rothbart, 2009)
A negative correlation was observed between schooling skills and the conflict index obtained with the flanker task, which indicates that higher scores on schooling skills are associated with greater executive attention efficiency
We found that independent reports of schooling skills and effortful control (EC), respectively reported by teachers and parents, were positively related to one another

Summary

Introduction

Self-regulation (SR), the capacity to voluntarily modulate thoughts, emotions, and actions, has been found to positively influence social adjustment as well as cognitive and academic performance from early childhood and adolescence (Checa and Rueda, 2011; Eisenberg et al, 2011) to adulthood (Moffitt et al, 2011).The development of SR skills is related to the maturation of the executive attention network (EAN), a neural system involving the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and the basal ganglia (Posner and Rothbart, 2009). Several studies have reported that performance on tasks that engage the EAN correlates with children’s social behavior in the school (Checa et al, 2008) as well as with caregiver scores and self-reported. SLC6A3-DAT1 Gene Modulates Children’s Self-regulation measures of effortful control, a temperamental factor related to SR (see Rueda, 2012 for a review). Some studies have found that the performance of tasks engaging executive attention processing and higher-level EFs are highly correlated with measures of general intelligence (Brydges et al, 2012; Duggan and GarciaBarrera, 2015) and exhibit overlapping patterns of activation in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (Duncan and Owen, 2000; Duncan et al, 2000)

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