[Effect of dopaminergic and serotonergic gene variants on cognitive performance]. / Dopaminerg és szerotonerg génvariánsok hatása a kognitív teljesítményre.

UNLABELLED: According to twin studies heritability of cognitive skills is substantial, however, little is known about the gene variants responsible for coding individual variability. Results of candidate gene studies implicate an important role of the dopaminergic system in coding individual differences in reaction time performance, and the possible role of the function of the serotonergic system has also emerged. GOALS: The aim of our study was to carry out association analyses between performance on the Stroop-task and selected gene polymorphisms of the dopaminergic and serotonergic system. RESULTS: In this study we examined 179 young adult's Stroop-performance measuring the attentional inhibition. The number of mistakes showed remarkable individual variability which can be related to the polymorphisms of the dopamine D4 receptor gene according to several previous studies. The short and long variations of the variable number tandem repeat polymorphism in the promoter region of the serotonin transporter gene was also studied based on the hypothesis of dopamine-serotonin balance. CONCLUSION: Our results demonstrate that the performance in the Stroop task is related to the genetic variants of the dopaminergic, as well as the serotonergic system.

Site-specific risk assessment in contaminated vegetable gardens.

A field survey was carried on in Gyöngyösoroszi, Hungary, near to an abandoned lead/zinc mine to analyse the metal contamination of flooded and non-flooded vegetable gardens, and to evaluate the health risks to local population. Contamination levels of arsenic, cadmium, lead, mercury and zinc were measured in soil and homegrown vegetable samples and bioconcentration factors and hazard indices were calculated. The high metal contents of flooded vegetable gardens were caused by floods, the results indicated significant differences between flooded and non-flooded vegetable gardens. The most accumulating vegetable was sorrel, the most mobile elements were cadmium and lead. Arsenic was not available for vegetables. The health risk was calculated for two exposure routes: ingestion of soil and ingestion of vegetables. The site-specific exposure parameters were established after a population based survey and a special equation was created to calculate the health risk due to homegrown vegetable consumption. The highest risk was associated with ingestion of vegetables, the most hazardous element being lead. The hazard index did not exceed the threshold value of one in flooded or non-flooded gardens. The analyses of health risk indicated that despite the high metal concentrations of soil the contamination of vegetable gardens does not pose an unacceptable risk to the inhabitants of the village.