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Longitudinal Associations of Genetic Polymorphisms and Personality Traits: Independent and Interactive Effects on Neurocognitive Performance in Older Adults
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- Author / Creator
- Sapkota, Shraddha
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Research has linked multifaceted neurocognitive phenotypes to genetic polymorphisms and environmental factors. This study examines associations of personality traits and single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) on cognition. Structural equation modeling was used to examine (a) independent and interactive effects of six SNPs (APOE, COMT, BDNF, CLU, CR1, PICALM) and (b) five personality traits on (c) cognitive performance and change in (d) a five-wave (approximately 14-years) longitudinal sample of older adults (N=282). We observed (a) adults with high openness levels performed higher on memory and neurocognitive speed, (b) COMT allelic risk carriers showed shallower positive slope and BDNF allelic risk carriers had steeper change in memory, (c) combined allelic risk group for APOExCR1 had the worst performance on vocabulary and APOExCOMT and APOExBDNF groups had shallower positive change on word recall, and (d) neuroticism levels moderated memory performance for CLU and COMT in the unexpected directions. Implications of findings are discussed.
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- Subjects / Keywords
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- Graduation date
- Fall 2013
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- Type of Item
- Thesis
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- Degree
- Master of Science
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- License
- This thesis is made available by the University of Alberta Libraries with permission of the copyright owner solely for non-commercial purposes. This thesis, or any portion thereof, may not otherwise be copied or reproduced without the written consent of the copyright owner, except to the extent permitted by Canadian copyright law.