PMID- 22941316 OWN - NLM STAT- MEDLINE DCOM- 20130325 LR - 20220129 IS - 1432-1106 (Electronic) IS - 0014-4819 (Linking) VI - 223 IP - 1 DP - 2012 Nov TI - The effect of BDNF val66met polymorphism on visuomotor adaptation. PG - 43-50 LID - 10.1007/s00221-012-3239-9 [doi] AB - Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) plays an important role in learning, memory, and brain plasticity. Humans with a val66met polymorphism in the BDNF gene have reduced levels of BDNF and alterations in motor learning and short-term cortical plasticity. In the current study, we sought to further explore the role of BDNF in motor learning by testing human subjects on a visuomotor adaptation task. In experiment 1, 21 subjects with the polymorphism (val/met) and 21 matched controls (val/val) were tested during learning, short-term retention (45 min), long-term retention (24 h), and de-adaptation of a 60 degrees visuomotor deviation. We measured both mean error as well as rate of adaptation during each session. There was no difference in mean error between groups; however, val/met subjects had a reduced rate of adaptation during learning as well as during long-term retention, but not short-term retention or de-adaptation. In experiment 2, 12 val/met and 12 val/val subjects were tested on a larger 80 degrees deviation, revealing a more pronounced difference in mean error during adaptation than the 60 degrees deviation. These results suggest that BDNF may play an important role in visuomotor adaptive processes in the human. FAU - Joundi, Raed A AU - Joundi RA AD - Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Oxford, Level 6, West Wing, John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, OX3 9DU, UK. FAU - Lopez-Alonso, Virginia AU - Lopez-Alonso V FAU - Lago, Angel AU - Lago A FAU - Brittain, John-Stuart AU - Brittain JS FAU - Fernandez-Del-Olmo, Miguel AU - Fernandez-Del-Olmo M FAU - Gomez-Garre, Pilar AU - Gomez-Garre P FAU - Mir, Pablo AU - Mir P FAU - Jenkinson, Ned AU - Jenkinson N FAU - Cheeran, Binith AU - Cheeran B FAU - Brown, Peter AU - Brown P LA - eng GR - G0901503/MRC_/Medical Research Council/United Kingdom PT - Journal Article PT - Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't DEP - 20120901 PL - Germany TA - Exp Brain Res JT - Experimental brain research JID - 0043312 RN - 0 (Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor) SB - IM MH - Adaptation, Physiological/*physiology MH - Amino Acid Substitution MH - Analysis of Variance MH - Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor/*genetics MH - Data Interpretation, Statistical MH - Female MH - Genotype MH - Humans MH - Learning/*physiology MH - Male MH - Polymorphism, Genetic/*genetics MH - Psychomotor Performance/physiology MH - Young Adult EDAT- 2012/09/04 06:00 MHDA- 2013/03/26 06:00 CRDT- 2012/09/04 06:00 PHST- 2012/05/18 00:00 [received] PHST- 2012/08/17 00:00 [accepted] PHST- 2012/09/04 06:00 [entrez] PHST- 2012/09/04 06:00 [pubmed] PHST- 2013/03/26 06:00 [medline] AID - 10.1007/s00221-012-3239-9 [doi] PST - ppublish SO - Exp Brain Res. 2012 Nov;223(1):43-50. doi: 10.1007/s00221-012-3239-9. Epub 2012 Sep 1.