Genetic analysis for cognitive flexibility in the trail-making test in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder patients from single nucleotide polymorphism, gene to pathway level

Objectives: Investigation of the genetic basis of endophenotype and analysis the pathways with multiple genes of small effects might increase the understanding of the genetic basis of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Here we aimed to explore the genetic basis of cognitive flexibility in ADHD at the single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP), gene and pathway levels.

Methods: The trail-making test was used to test the cognitive flexibility of 788 ADHD patients. A genome-wide association analysis of cognitive flexibility was conducted for 644,166 SNPs.

Results: The top SNP rs2049161 (P = 5.08e-7) involved gene DLGAP1 and the top gene CADPS2 in the gene-based analysis resulted in much literature evidence of associations with psychiatric disorders. Gene expression and network analysis showed their contribution to cognition function. The interval-enrichment analysis highlighted a potential contribution of ‘adenylate cyclase activity’ and ADCY2 to cognitive flexibility. Candidate pathway-based analysis for all SNPs found that glutamate system-, neurite outgrowth- and noradrenergic system-related pathways were significantly associated with cognitive flexibility (FDR <0.05), among which the neurite outgrowth pathway was also associated with ADHD symptoms.

Conclusions: This study provides evidence for the genes and pathways associated with cognitive flexibility and facilitate the uncovering of the genetic basis of ADHD.