Objective: The present study investigated the association of 3'-UTR VNTR and intron 8 VNTR polymorphisms with a time estimation task performance.
Materials and methods: One hundred and eight men in a Brazilian Northeast population (18-32 years old) participated in the experiment. The 3'-UTR VNTR and intron 8 VNTR polymorphisms were associated alone and combined to absolute error (AE) and relative error (RE) in a time estimation task (target duration: 1 s, 4 s, 7 s and 9 s).
Results: We found an association of the behavioral variable with intron 8 VNTR for the time intervals of 1 s and 9 s (p < 0.001) and polymorphisms combinatorial effect for 1 s (p ≤ 0.05).
Conclusion: The intron 8 VNTR polymorphism and the combinatorial effect can modulate the time estimate in the domain of supra seconds, and thus our study indicates a role of the dopamine transporter in the neurobiological areas related to the time intervals judgment.
Keywords: Dopamine; SLC6A3 3′-UTR VNTR; SLC6A3 intron 8 VNTR; Time estimation; Time perception.