The shared and unique genetic relationship between mental well-being,depression and anxiety symptoms and cognitive function in healthy twins |
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| Authors: | Kylie M. Routledge Karen L. O. Burton Leanne M. Williams Anthony Harris Peter R. Schofield C. Richard Clark |
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| Affiliation: | 1. The Brain Dynamics Centre, Sydney Medical School, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia;2. Westmead Institute for Medical Research, Westmead Hospital, Westmead, NSW, Australia;3. Discipline of Psychiatry, Sydney Medical School, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia;4. Neuroscience Research Australia, Randwick NSW, Australia;5. Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford School of Medicine, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA;6. MIRECC VISN21, VA Palo Alto Health Care System, CA, USA;7. Neuroscience Research Australia, Randwick NSW, Australia;8. School of Medicine, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia;9. School of Psychology, Flinders University, Bedford Park, South Australia, Australia;10. Brain Clinics Australia, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia |
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| Abstract: | Alterations to cognitive function are often reported with depression and anxiety symptoms, yet few studies have examined the same associations with mental well-being. This study examined the association between mental well-being, depression and anxiety symptoms and cognitive function in 1502 healthy adult monozygotic (MZ) and dizygotic (DZ) twins, and the shared/unique contribution of genetic (G) and environmental (E) variance. Using linear mixed models, mental well-being was positively associated (p?β?=?0.127), inhibition (β?=?0.096), cognitive flexibility (β?=?0.149), motor coordination (β?=?0.114) and working memory (β?=?0.156), whereas depression and anxiety symptoms were associated (p?β?=??0.134), inhibition (β?=??0.139), cognitive flexibility (β?=??0.116) and executive function (β?=??0.139). Bivariate twin modelling showed well-being shared a small environmental correlation with motor coordination and a small genetic correlation with working memory. Trivariate twin modelling showed well-being shared a small genetic correlation with inhibition, whereas depression and anxiety symptoms shared a small environmental correlation with inhibition. The remaining variance was mostly driven by unique G and/or E variance. Overall, well-being and depression and anxiety symptoms show both independent and shared relationships with cognitive functions but this is largely attributable to unique G or E variance and small shared G/E variance between pairs of variables. |
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| Keywords: | Well-being mental health twins attention inhibition executive function |
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