BACKGROUND Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms are dimensionally distributed in the population. This study aimed to assess the role of the catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) and of the dopamine transporter (DAT1) genes on ADHD symptoms in the general population. METHODS We investigated 4101 individuals from the 1993 Pelotas Birth Cohort Study using the parent version of ...

Diaminothiazoles are novel cytotoxic compounds that have shown efficacy toward different cancer cell lines. They show potent antimitotic and antiangiogenic activity upon binding to the colchicine-binding site of tubulin. However, the mechanism of action of diaminothiazoles at the molecular level is not known. Here, we show a reversible binding to tubulin with a fast conformational change that a...

BACKGROUND Dopamine plays an important role in orienting, response anticipation and movement evaluation. Thus, we examined the influence of functional variants related to dopamine inactivation in the dopamine transporter (DAT1) and catechol-O-methyltransferase genes (COMT) on the time-course of motor processing in a contingent negative variation (CNV) task. METHODS 64-channel EEG recordings w...

In humans, dopamine neurotransmission is influenced by functional polymorphisms in the dopamine transporter (DAT1) and catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) genes. Here, we used event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging to directly investigate the neurofunctional effects of the Val(158)Met COMT and variable number of tandem repeat DAT1 polymorphisms on distinct components of the reward ...

CONTEXT Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a common heritable childhood behavioral disorder. Identifying risk factors for ADHD may lead to improved intervention and prevention. The dopamine transporter gene (DAT1) is associated with ADHD in several studies, with an average 1.2 odds ratio and evidence of heterogeneity across data sets. OBJECTIVE To investigate sources of hetero...

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and reading disability (RD) frequently co-occur in the child population and therefore raise the possibility of shared genetic etiology. We used a quantitative trait loci (QTL) approach to assess the involvement of the dopamine transporter (DAT1) gene polymorphism in mediating reading disability and poor attention in a general population sample of ...

The error-related negativity (ERN) is a negative deflection in the event-related potential that occurs approximately 50 ms following the commission of an error at fronto-central electrode sites. Previous models suggest dopamine plays a role in the generation of the ERN. We recorded event-related potentials (ERPs) while 279 children aged 5-7 years completed a simple Go/No-Go task; the ERN was ex...

Th, Dat1, Snca and Bdnf were the genes whose mRNA levels in the ventral tegmental area of the midbrain were measured in male mice that were victorious in 20 daily agonistic interactions and in a group of such victorious mice that had later not been allowed to fight for 14 days. This experiment demonstrated increased Th, Dat1 and Snca but not Bdnf mRNA levels in the former group as compared to t...

Attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a highly heritable disorder and several genes increasing disease risk have been identified. The dopamine transporter gene, SLC6A3/DAT1, has been studied most extensively in ADHD research. Interestingly, a different haplotype of this gene (formed by genetic variants in the 3' untranslated region and intron 8) is associated with childhood ADHD (h...

Recent data from animal studies raise the possibility that dopaminergic neuromodulation promotes the encoding of novel stimuli. We investigated a possible role for the dopaminergic midbrain in human episodic memory by measuring how polymorphisms in dopamine clearance pathways affect encoding-related brain activity (functional magnetic resonance imaging) in an episodic memory task. In 51 young, ...