ArticleDevelopmental science2018
Effect of the COMT Val158Met genotype on lateral prefrontal activations in young children.
Article in Developmental science, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers.
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Who cites it
14 citing papers in PubMed, 36 citations in OpenAlex.
- Self-directed music play to improve executive function in young children using NIRS.Scientific reports · 2025Trial
- Gene-exercise interaction on brain health in children with overweight/obesity: the ActiveBrains randomized controlled trial.Journal of applied physiology (Bethesda, Md. : 1985) · 2023Trial
- Emergent blink rate in early childhood is associated with neural origins of executive function.Communications psychology · 2026Article
- Individual differences in learning and decision-making: the role of COMT Val158Met polymorphism in transitive inference.Experimental brain research · 2026Article
- Catechol-O-methyltransferase gene (COMT) is associated with neurocognitive functioning in patients with sickle cell disease.Current research in translational medicine · 2024Article
- Viewing and playing fantastical events does not affect children's cognitive flexibility and prefrontal activation.Heliyon · 2023Article
- Article
- Effects of social and nonsocial reward on executive function in preschoolers.Brain and behavior · 2020Article
- Relations between catechol-O-methyltransferase Val158Met genotype and inhibitory control development in childhood.Developmental psychobiology · 2020Article
- A Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy Examination of the Neural Correlates of Cognitive Shifting in Dimensional Change Card Sort Task.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2020Article
- Differential Effects of Stress Exposures, Caregiving Quality, and Temperament in Early Life on Working Memory versus Inhibitory Control in Preschool-Aged Children.Developmental neuropsychology · 2019Article
- Neural substrates of early executive function development.Developmental review : DR · 2019Review
- Socioeconomic disparity in prefrontal development during early childhood.Scientific reports · 2019Article
- Effect of the COMT Val158Met genotype on lateral prefrontal activations in young children.Developmental science · 2018Article
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Authors and funding
2 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Low executive function (EF) during early childhood is a major risk factor for developmental delay, academic failure, and social withdrawal. Susceptible genes may affect the molecular and biological mechanisms underpinning EF. More specifically, genes associated with the regulation of prefrontal dopamine may modulate the response of prefrontal neurons during executive control. Several studies with adults and older children have shown that variants of the catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) gene are associated with behavioral performance and prefrontal activations in EF tasks. However, the effect of the COMT genotype on prefrontal activations during EF tasks on young children is still unknown. The present study examined whether a common functional polymorphism (Val158Met) in the COMT gene was associated with prefrontal activations and cognitive shifting in 3- to 6-year-old children. The study revealed that, compared with children with at least one Met allele (Met/Met and Met/Val), children who were Val homozygous (i) were more able to flexibly switch rules in cognitive shifting tasks and (ii) exhibited increased activations in lateral prefrontal regions during these tasks. This is the first evidence that demonstrates the relationship between a gene polymorphism and prefrontal activations in young children. It also indicates that COMT Val homozygosity may be advantageous for cognitive shifting and prefrontal functions, at least during early childhood, and children who possess this variant may have a lower risk of developing future cognitive and social development issues.
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