Genetic Influences on Sluggish Cognitive Tempo and Reading

The overall goal of this pilot study is to examine the relationships between neuropsychological skills and genetic polymorphisms of children ages 8-15 years who display slowed processing speed in the context of behaviorally defined sluggish cognitive tempo (SCT). This is a multisite collaboration between sites at Kennedy Krieger Institute/Johns Hopkins University and Yale University, leveraging unique investigator expertise and patient populations at each site.

The proposed study will be the first genetic investigation of a more specific behavioral “polyphenotype” (i.e., SCT), hypothesized to be associated with both ADHD and dyslexia. Although no genetic correlates of SCT have yet been identified, we hypothesize that candidate genes are more likely to be found among those genes that appear shared between ADHD and dyslexia than among those unique to each of the disorders.