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

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 polymorphism
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.