Involvement of the AATn polymorphism of the CNR1 gene in the efficiency of procedural learning in humans

Abstract

Procedural learning refers to the acquisition of motor skills and the practice that refines their performance. The striatum participates in this learning through a function regulated by endocannabinoid signaling and other systems. This study relates the efficiency in learning a procedural task with the AATn polymorphism of the CNR1 gene, which encodes for the CB1 receptor. The mirror-drawing star task was solved by 99 healthy young subjects in three trials. The sample was divided into high- and low-performance groups based on performance efficiency. AAT12/14 carriers were more frequent in the former group, while there were more AAT12/13 carriers in the latter, which also made more errors/min. Therefore, we characterized two efficiency phenotypes: high- vs. low-performers associated with the two AATn genotypes, AAT12/14 vs. AAT12/13. The findings suggest that AATn polymorphism modifies CNR1 translation, indicating a different modulation of CB1.