People showing symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) often present an impairment of reaction time and response inhibition. These executive functions are influenced by nicotinergic acetylcholine receptors (nAchr) as mediators of cholinergic signalling, and show differences between both sexes. We examined the effects of two functional polymorphismsrs3841324 (S/L) and rs16969968 (G/A) of the α5 subunit encoding gene CHRNA5, ADHD symptoms and sex on response inhibition/reaction time in the Stop Signal Task. In the analyses, 183 participants (52.4 % females) were included. In participants carrying the diplotype (SS_GG), men with ADHD symptoms responded faster, while men without ADHD symptoms were slower than women (F = 5.313; p = 0.023; η² = 0.034). Although explorative, this threefold interaction on reaction time but not response inhibition extend previous findings, suggesting a moderating effect of the CHRNA5 diplotype SS_GG in male carriers with ADHD symptoms and might inspire research on genotype- and gender-specific ADHD medication.

Dataset for: Andrea B. Schote, Clara A. L. Sayk, Kathrin Pabst, Jacqueline K. Meier, Christian Frings, Jobst Meyer (2018). Sex, ADHD symptoms & CHRNA5 genotype influence reaction time but not response inhibition. In: Journal of Neuroscience Research. https://doi.org/10.1002/jnr.24342