Key result
High-risk athlete sensation seeking lacks significant association with stathmin or BDNF genotypes.
Why the study?
Are genetic variants associated with sensation seeking over-represented in athletes participating in high-risk sports compared to low-risk sports?
Observational (n=273)
Are genetic variants associated with sensation seeking over-represented in athletes participating in high-risk sports compared to low-risk sports?
Genetic variants in stathmin and BDNF showed nominal associations with high-risk sport participation, but these did not remain significant after correcting for multiple testing.
Null findings after correction caution against overinterpreting nominal associations; leaves open genetic influences on sensation seeking in athletes.
Athletes participating in high-risk sports consistently report higher scores on sensation-seeking measures than do low-risk athletes or non-athletic controls. To determine whether genetic variants commonly associated with sensation seeking were over-represented in such athletes, proficient practitioners of high-risk (n = 141) and low-risk sports (n = 132) were compared for scores on sensation seeking and then genotyped at 33 polymorphic loci in 14 candidate genes. As expected, athletes participating in high-risk sports score higher on sensation seeking than did low-risk sport athletes (P < .01). Genotypes were associated with high-risk sport participation for two genes (stathmin, (P = .004) and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (P = .03)) as well as when demographically matched subsets of the sport cohorts were compared (P < .05); however, in all cases, associations did not survive correction for multiple testing.
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Thomson et al. (2015) conducted an observational in High-risk sport participation (n=273). High-risk sport participation vs. Low-risk sport participation was evaluated on Genotypes at 33 polymorphic loci in 14 candidate genes and sensation seeking scores. Although high-risk sport athletes scored higher on sensation seeking (P < .01), associations with stathmin (P = .004) and BDNF (P = .03) genotypes did not survive correction for multiple testing.
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