Genetic influence on cognitive processes associated with distraction: An event-related potential study of the slow wave

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Abstract
The efficiency of inhibitory control processes has been proposed as a mechanism constraining working‐memory capacity. In order to investigate genetic influences on processes that may reflect interference control, event‐related potential (ERP) activity recorded at frontal sites, during distracting and nondistracting conditions of a working‐memory task, in a sample of 509 twin pairs was examined. The ERP component of interest was the slow wave (SW). Considerable overlap in source of genetic influence was found, with a common genetic factor accounting for 37 – 45% of SW variance irrespective of condition. However, 3 – 8% of SW variance in the distracting condition was influenced by an independent genetic source. These results suggest that neural responses to irrelevant and distracting information, that may disrupt working‐memory performance, differ in a fundamental way from perceptual and memory‐based processing in a working‐memory task. Furthermore, the results are consistent with the view that cognition is a complex genetic trait influenced by numerous genes of small influence.