Genetic polymorphisms in COMT and BDNF influence synchronization dynamics of human neuronal oscillations

Jaana Simola; Felix Siebenhühner; Vladislav Myrov; Katri Kantojärvi; Tiina Paunio; J Matias Palva; Elvira Brattico; Satu Palva

doi:10.1016/j.isci.2022.104985

Genetic polymorphisms in COMT and BDNF influence synchronization dynamics of human neuronal oscillations

iScience. 2022 Aug 18;25(9):104985. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2022.104985. eCollection 2022 Sep 16.

Authors

Jaana Simola^{1

2

3}, Felix Siebenhühner¹, Vladislav Myrov^{1

4}, Katri Kantojärvi^{5

6}, Tiina Paunio^{5

6}, J Matias Palva^{1

4

7}, Elvira Brattico^{8

9}, Satu Palva^{1

7}

Affiliations

¹ Neuroscience Center, Helsinki Institute of Life Science, University of Helsinki, Haartmaninkatu 3, 00014 Helsinki, Finland.
² Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies (HCAS), University of Helsinki, Finland.
³ BioMag Laboratory, HUS Medical Imaging Centre, 00029 HUS, Finland.
⁴ Department of Neuroscience and Biomedical Engineering (NBE), Aalto University, 02150 Espoo, Finland.
⁵ Department of Public Health and Welfare, Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare, Helsinki, 00271 Helsinki, Finland.
⁶ Department of Psychiatry and SleepWell Research Program, Faculty of Medicine, University of Helsinki and Helsinki University Central Hospital, Helsinki, 00014 Helsinki, Finland.
⁷ Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging (CCNi), Institute of Neuroscience and Psychology, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 8QB, UK.
⁸ Center for Music in the Brain (MIB), Department of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University &The Royal Academy of Music Aarhus/Aalborg, 8000 Aarhus C, Denmark.
⁹ Department of Education, Psychology, Communication, University of Bari Aldo Moro, 70121 Bari, Italy.

Abstract

Neuronal oscillations, their inter-areal synchronization, and scale-free dynamics constitute fundamental mechanisms for cognition by regulating communication in neuronal networks. These oscillatory dynamics have large inter-individual variability that is partly heritable. We hypothesized that this variability could be partially explained by genetic polymorphisms in neuromodulatory genes. We recorded resting-state magnetoencephalography (MEG) from 82 healthy participants and investigated whether oscillation dynamics were influenced by genetic polymorphisms in catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) Val¹⁵⁸Met and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) Val⁶⁶Met. Both COMT and BDNF polymorphisms influenced local oscillation amplitudes and their long-range temporal correlations (LRTCs), while only BDNF polymorphism affected the strength of large-scale synchronization. Our findings demonstrate that COMT and BDNF genetic polymorphisms contribute to inter-individual variability in neuronal oscillation dynamics. Comparison of these results to computational modeling of near-critical synchronization dynamics further suggested that COMT and BDNF polymorphisms influenced local oscillations by modulating the excitation-inhibition balance according to the brain criticality framework.

Keywords: Biological sciences; Cognitive neuroscience; Neuroscience.

Associated data

Dryad/10.5061/dryad.3n5tb2rjp