Common Kibra Alleles Are Associated with Human Memory Performance

• DOI: 10.1126/science.1129837
• Publication Date: 2006-10-19T20:53:14Z
• Authors: Andreas Papassoti...; Dietrich A. Stephan; Matthew J. Huente...; Frederic J. Hoerndli; David W. Craig; John V. Pearson; Kim-Dung Huynh; Fabienne Brunner; Jason Corneveaux; David Osborne; M. Axel Wollmer; Amanda Aerni; Daniel Coluccia; Jürgen Hänggi; Christian R. A. M...; Andreas Buchmann; Eric M. Reiman; Richard J. Caselli; Katharina Henke; Dominique J.-F. d...
• Keywords: Adult; Male; 0301 basic medicine; Adolescent; Genotype; Gene Expression; 610 Medicine & health; Hippocampus; Cohort Studies; 03 medical and health sciences; Memory; 11554 Zurich Center for Integrative Human Physiology (ZIHP); Animals; Humans; Attention; Alleles; Brain Chemistry; 1000 Multidisciplinary; 10093 Institute of Psychology; Calcium-Binding Proteins; Intracellular Signaling Peptides and Proteins; Brain; Membrane Proteins; 11359 Institute for Regenerative Medicine (IREM); Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Haplotypes; 570 Life sciences; biology; Female; 150 Psychology

Human memory is a polygenic trait. We performed a genome-wide screen to identify memory-related gene variants. A genomic locus encoding the brain protein KIBRA was significantly associated with memory performance in three independent, cognitively normal cohorts from Switzerland and the United States. Gene expression studies showed that KIBRA was expressed in memory-related brain structures. Functional magnetic resonance imaging detected KIBRA allele–dependent differences in hippocampal activations during memory retrieval. Evidence from these experiments suggests a role for KIBRA in human memory.