title: No association of the BDNF val66met polymorphism with implicit associative vocabulary and motor learning.
abstract: Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) has been suggested to play a major role in plasticity, neurogenesis and learning in the adult brain. The BDNF gene contains a common val66met polymorphism associated with decreased activity-dependent excretion of BDNF and a potential influence on behaviour, more specifically, on motor learning. The objective of this study was to determine the influence of the BDNF val66met polymorphism on short-term implicit associative learning and whether its influence is cognitive domain-specific (motor vs. language). A sample of 38 young healthy participants was genotyped, screened for background and neuropsychological differences, and tested with two associative implicit learning paradigms in two different cognitive domains, i.e., motor and vocabulary learning. Subjects performed the serial reaction time task (SRTT) to determine implicit motor learning and a recently established associative vocabulary learning task (AVL) for implicit learning of action and object words. To determine the influence of the BDNF polymorphism on domain-specific implicit learning, behavioural improvements in the two tasks were compared between val/val (n = 22) and met carriers (val/met: n = 15 and met/met: n = 1). There was no evidence for an impact of the BDNF val66met polymorphism on the behavioural outcome in implicit short-term learning paradigms in young healthy subjects. Whether this polymorphism plays a relevant role in long-term training paradigms or in subjects with impaired neuronal plasticity or reduced learning capacity, such as aged individuals, demented patients or patients with brain lesions, has to be determined in future studies.
authors.affiliation: Brain Imaging and Neurostimulation Laboratory, Department of Neurology, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Nils
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Freundlieb
authors.forename: Stephan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Philipp
authors.forename: Susanne A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Schneider
authors.forename: Norbert
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Brüggemann
authors.forename: Christine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Klein
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Gerloff
authors.forename: Friedhelm C
authors.initials: FC
authors.lastname: Hummel
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D019943:Amino Acid Substitution; D019208:Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor / Q000235:genetics*; D005260:Female; D005838:Genotype; D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D011110:Polymorphism, Genetic; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology; D011930:Reaction Time; D014706:Verbal Learning / Q000502:physiology; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D019208:Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor