SynthesisGenes, brain, and behavior2016
COMT Val(158) Met genotype is associated with reward learning: a replication study and meta-analysis.
Synthesis in Genes, brain, and behavior, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
14 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 63 citations in OpenAlex.
- Brain imaging genetics in ADHD and beyond - Mapping pathways from gene to disorder at different levels of complexity.Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews · 2017Pooled it
- Probing biomarkers and clinical utility of reward learning across species using the Probabilistic Reward Task: 20 years of findings.Nature. Mental health · 2026Article
- Dopaminergic genetic variation and response to social comparative feedback when learning a motor sequence task.PloS one · 2026Article
- Biopsychology Lab: COMT Genotype Associations with Vagal Tone and Frontal Alpha Asymmetry.Journal of undergraduate neuroscience education : JUNE : a publication of FUN, Faculty for Undergraduate Neuroscience · 2025Article
- Understanding Anhedonia from a Genomic Perspective.Current topics in behavioral neurosciences · 2022Review
- The Role of Dopaminergic Genes in Probabilistic Reinforcement Learning in Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorders.Brain sciences · 2021Article
- Distinct roles for dopamine clearance mechanisms in regulating behavioral flexibility.Molecular psychiatry · 2021Article
- Motivational learning biases are differentially modulated by genetic determinants of striatal and prefrontal dopamine function.Journal of neural transmission (Vienna, Austria : 1996) · 2021Article
- The Associations between COMT and MAO-B Genetic Variants with Negative Symptoms in Patients with Schizophrenia.Current issues in molecular biology · 2021Article
- Using pharmacological manipulations to study the role of dopamine in human reward functioning: A review of studies in healthy adults.Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews · 2021Review
- The influence of stress and early life adversity on addiction: Psychobiological mechanisms of risk and resilience.International review of neurobiology · 2020Review
- Dopaminergic Genetic Variants and Voluntary Externally Paced Exercise Behavior.Medicine and science in sports and exercise · 2018Article
- Behavioral and Electrophysiological Alterations for Reinforcement Learning in Manic and Euthymic Patients with Bipolar Disorder.CNS neuroscience & therapeutics · 2017Article
- "Pro-dopamine regulation (KB220Z™)" as a long-term therapeutic modality to overcome reduced resting state dopamine tone in opiate/opioid epidemic in America.Journal of systems and integrative neuroscience · 2016Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
15 authors at 10 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Identifying mechanisms through which individual differences in reward learning emerge offers an opportunity to understand both a fundamental form of adaptive responding as well as etiological pathways through which aberrant reward learning may contribute to maladaptive behaviors and psychopathology. One candidate mechanism through which individual differences in reward learning may emerge is variability in dopaminergic reinforcement signaling. A common functional polymorphism within the catechol-O-methyl transferase gene (COMT; rs4680, Val(158) Met) has been linked to reward learning, where homozygosity for the Met allele (linked to heightened prefrontal dopamine function and decreased dopamine synthesis in the midbrain) has been associated with relatively increased reward learning. Here, we used a probabilistic reward learning task to asses response bias, a behavioral form of reward learning, across three separate samples that were combined for analyses (age: 21.80 ± 3.95; n = 392; 268 female; European-American: n = 208). We replicate prior reports that COMT rs4680 Met allele homozygosity is associated with increased reward learning in European-American participants (β = 0.20, t = 2.75, P < 0.01; ΔR(2) = 0.04). Moreover, a meta-analysis of 4 studies, including the current one, confirmed the association between COMT rs4680 genotype and reward learning (95% CI -0.11 to -0.03; z = 3.2; P < 0.01). These results suggest that variability in dopamine signaling associated with COMT rs4680 influences individual differences in reward which may potentially contribute to psychopathology characterized by reward dysfunction.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.