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A functional genetic variation of the 5-HT2a receptor affects human memory
Dominique J-F de Quervain1, Katharina Henke, Amanda Aerni
1Division of Psychiatry Research, University of Zürich, Lenggstr. 31, 8029 Zürich, Switzerland. quervain@bli.unizh.ch
Nature Neuroscience
|October 21, 2003
Abstract:
Human memory capacity is highly variable across individuals and is influenced by both genetic and environmental factors. A roughly 50% heritability estimate indicates that naturally occurring genetic variations have an important impact on this cognitive ability. Therefore, we investigated a functional variation of a memory-related serotonin receptor in 349 healthy young volunteers, and found 21% poorer memory performance in subjects with the rare variant.