Reaction time, inhibition, working memory and ‘delay aversion’ performance: genetic influences and their interpretation
Open accessAbstract
Background. For candidate endophenotypes to be useful for psychiatric genetic research, they first of all need to show significant genetic influences. To address the relative lack of previous data, we set to investigate the extent of genetic and environmental influences on performance in a set of theoretically driven cognitive-experimental tasks in a large twin sample. We further aimed to illustrate how test–retest reliability of the measures affects the estimates. Method. Four-hundred 7- to 9-year-old twin pairs were assessed individually on tasks measuring reaction time, inhibition, working memory and ‘delay aversion’ performance. Test–retest reliability data on some of the key measures were available from a previous study. Results. Several key measures of reaction time, inhibition and working-memory performance indicated a moderate degree of genetic influence. Combining data across theoretically related tasks increased the heritability estimates, as illustrated by the heritability estimates of 60% for mean reaction time and 50% for reaction-time variability. Psychometric properties (reliability or ceiling effects) had a substantial influence on the estimates for some measures. Conclusions. The data support the usefulness of several of the variables for endophenotype studies that aim to link genes to cognitive and motivational processes. Importantly, the data also illustrate specific conditions under which the true extent of genetic influences may be underestimated and hence the usefulness for genetic mapping studies compromised, and suggest ways to address this.
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A twin study provided an RTV heritability estimate of 50%.
“A twin study provided an RTV heritability estimate of 50% (Kuntsi et al. 2006)”
From Reaction Time Variability and Electrophysiological Indices of Performance Monitoring in Youths With Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (2026) · cites this paper as Kuntsi et al. 2006
This is likely because the ceiling/floor effects of neuropsychological measures mean that impaired profiles for a given measure are more likely to emerge consistently in the same direction (e.g., decreased working memory accuracy in children with ADHD).
“This is likely because the ceiling/floor effects of neuropsychological measures mean that impaired profiles for a given measure are more likely to emerge consistently in the same direction (e.g., decreased working memory accuracy in children with ADHD) 72 .”
From Candidate diagnostic biomarkers for neurodevelopmental disorders in children and adolescents: a systematic review (2023) · cites this paper as [72]
The Results (page unavailable) report that ceiling effects on a delay-aversion task artificially increased twin similarity and distorted genetic estimates. The Introduction and Method (pages unavailable) describe a general sample of twins, not a comparison of children with and without ADHD. Searches for floor effects and consistently directional impairment, including reduced working-memory accuracy in ADHD, found no passage addressing the claimed explanation. (LLM, conf=0.76)
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“A twin study provided an RTV heritability estimate of 50% (Kuntsi et al. 2006); a recent genome-wide association study identified seven significant loci for RTV (Wootton et al. 2023).”
- Authors
- KUNTSI, J., ROGERS, H., SWINARD, G., BÖRGER, N., MEERE, J. V. D., RIJSDIJK, F., & ASHERSON, P.
- Affiliations
- King's College London (GB)
- University of Groningen (NL)
- Corresponding author
- KUNTSI, JONNA
- Venue
- Psychological Medicine
- Publisher
- Cambridge University Press (CUP)
- Published
- 2006-08-02
- Volume
- 36
- Issue
- 11
- Pages
- 1613-1624
- ISSN
- 0033-2917 (ISSN-L)
- 1469-8978
- PMC
- PMC3770933
- OpenAlex
- W2149467627
- Cited by
- 126
- References
- 28
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 1 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 6 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 5 · 2020: 3 · 2019: 3 · 2018: 4 · 2017: 3 · 2016: 11 · 2015: 10 · 2014: 15 · 2013: 9 · 2012: 6
- FWCI
- 10.05
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- europepmc.org
- Locations
- Psychological Medicine (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Research Portal (King's College London) (submittedVersion)
- University of Groningen research database (University of Groningen / Centre for Information Technology) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Wellcome Trust (GR070345MF, 070345)
- Innovative Research Group Project of the National Natural Science Foundation of China
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Cognitive Abilities and Testing
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Genetic Associations and Epidemiology
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
- Keywords
- heritability, endophenotypes, reaction time, inhibition, working memory, delay aversion, cognitive performance, test-retest reliability, twin studies, children, gene mapping
- MeSH terms
- Child, Humans, Individuality, Inhibition, Psychological, Intelligence, Memory, Short-Term, Motivation, Neuropsychological Tests, Phenotype, Psychometrics, Reaction Time, Reinforcement Schedule, Social Environment, Twins, Dizygotic, Twins, Monozygotic, Wechsler Scales
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