We found that those with the AA or AG genotypes of the GABRA2 SNP rs279858 had higher impulsivity and sensation seeking compared to those with the GG geno-type, even after correcting for multiple testing. This finding partially replicates results from a previous study that found that GABRA2 predicted adolescent sensation seeking [9], providing some confidence in this finding. However, our results differ from this study because they did not find a relation between GABRA2 and adolescent impulsivity. This difference might be due to the fact that we utilized multiple informants’ reports on the Eysenck Impulsiveness Questionnaire to characterize our measure of impulsivity while they utilized adolescent self-reports on the Barratt Impulsivity scale. Genetic association tests will likely be more reliable when using multiple reporters, rather than only self-reports, of adolescents’ disinhibition due to reductions in informant bias that subsequently serve to better capture the trait of interest. Interestingly, previous studies [23, 24] found a relation between GABRA2 and adults’ NEO-Impulsiveness, which reflects impulsivity under negative affectivity. Nonetheless, because few studies have shown an association between GABRA2 variation and impulsive behavior
