BDNF val66met affects hippocampal volume and emotion-related hippocampal memory activity

The val66met polymorphism on the BDNF gene has been reported to explain individual differences in hippocampal volume and memory-related activity. These findings, however, have not been replicated consistently and no studies to date controlled for the potentially confounding impact of early life stre...

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Main Authors:	Molendijk, M L, van Tol, M-J, Penninx, B W J H, van der Wee, N J A, Aleman, A, Veltman, D J, Spinhoven, P, Elzinga, B M
Format:	Online
Language:	English
Published:	Nature Publishing Group 2012
Online Access:	https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3309548/

id	pubmed-3309548
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	pubmed-33095482012-04-03 BDNF val66met affects hippocampal volume and emotion-related hippocampal memory activity Molendijk, M L van Tol, M-J Penninx, B W J H van der Wee, N J A Aleman, A Veltman, D J Spinhoven, P Elzinga, B M Original Article The val66met polymorphism on the BDNF gene has been reported to explain individual differences in hippocampal volume and memory-related activity. These findings, however, have not been replicated consistently and no studies to date controlled for the potentially confounding impact of early life stress, such as childhood abuse, and psychiatric status. Using structural and functional MRI, we therefore investigated in 126 depressed and/or anxious patients and 31 healthy control subjects the effects of val66met on hippocampal volume and encoding activity of neutral, positive and negative words, while taking into account childhood abuse and psychiatric status. Our results show slightly lower hippocampal volumes in carriers of a met allele (n=54) relative to val/val homozygotes (n=103) (P=0.02, effect size (Cohen's d)=0.37), which appeared to be independent of childhood abuse and psychiatric status. For hippocampal encoding activity, we found a val66met–word valence interaction (P=0.02) such that carriers of a met allele showed increased levels of activation in response to negative words relative to activation in the neutral word condition and relative to val/val homozygotes. This, however, was only evident in the absence of childhood abuse, as abused val/val homozygotes showed hippocampal encoding activity for negative words that was comparable to that of carriers of a met allele. Neither psychiatric status nor memory accuracy did account for these associations. In conclusion, BDNF val66met has a significant impact on hippocampal volume independently of childhood abuse and psychiatric status. Furthermore, early adverse experiences such as childhood abuse account for individual differences in hippocampal encoding activity of negative stimuli but this effect manifests differently as a function of val66met. Nature Publishing Group 2012-01 2012-01-31 /pmc/articles/PMC3309548/ /pubmed/22832736 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/tp.2011.72 Text en Copyright © 2012 Macmillan Publishers Limited http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/
repository_type	Open Access Journal
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	US National Center for Biotechnology Information
building	NCBI PubMed
collection	Online Access
language	English
format	Online
author	Molendijk, M L van Tol, M-J Penninx, B W J H van der Wee, N J A Aleman, A Veltman, D J Spinhoven, P Elzinga, B M
spellingShingle	Molendijk, M L van Tol, M-J Penninx, B W J H van der Wee, N J A Aleman, A Veltman, D J Spinhoven, P Elzinga, B M BDNF val66met affects hippocampal volume and emotion-related hippocampal memory activity
author_facet	Molendijk, M L van Tol, M-J Penninx, B W J H van der Wee, N J A Aleman, A Veltman, D J Spinhoven, P Elzinga, B M
author_sort	Molendijk, M L
title	BDNF val66met affects hippocampal volume and emotion-related hippocampal memory activity
title_short	BDNF val66met affects hippocampal volume and emotion-related hippocampal memory activity
title_full	BDNF val66met affects hippocampal volume and emotion-related hippocampal memory activity
title_fullStr	BDNF val66met affects hippocampal volume and emotion-related hippocampal memory activity
title_full_unstemmed	BDNF val66met affects hippocampal volume and emotion-related hippocampal memory activity
title_sort	bdnf val66met affects hippocampal volume and emotion-related hippocampal memory activity
description	The val66met polymorphism on the BDNF gene has been reported to explain individual differences in hippocampal volume and memory-related activity. These findings, however, have not been replicated consistently and no studies to date controlled for the potentially confounding impact of early life stress, such as childhood abuse, and psychiatric status. Using structural and functional MRI, we therefore investigated in 126 depressed and/or anxious patients and 31 healthy control subjects the effects of val66met on hippocampal volume and encoding activity of neutral, positive and negative words, while taking into account childhood abuse and psychiatric status. Our results show slightly lower hippocampal volumes in carriers of a met allele (n=54) relative to val/val homozygotes (n=103) (P=0.02, effect size (Cohen's d)=0.37), which appeared to be independent of childhood abuse and psychiatric status. For hippocampal encoding activity, we found a val66met–word valence interaction (P=0.02) such that carriers of a met allele showed increased levels of activation in response to negative words relative to activation in the neutral word condition and relative to val/val homozygotes. This, however, was only evident in the absence of childhood abuse, as abused val/val homozygotes showed hippocampal encoding activity for negative words that was comparable to that of carriers of a met allele. Neither psychiatric status nor memory accuracy did account for these associations. In conclusion, BDNF val66met has a significant impact on hippocampal volume independently of childhood abuse and psychiatric status. Furthermore, early adverse experiences such as childhood abuse account for individual differences in hippocampal encoding activity of negative stimuli but this effect manifests differently as a function of val66met.
publisher	Nature Publishing Group
publishDate	2012
url	https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3309548/
_version_	1611515908311744512

BDNF val66met affects hippocampal volume and emotion-related hippocampal memory activity

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