PMID- 22963854 OWN - NLM STAT- MEDLINE DCOM- 20130604 LR - 20180816 IS - 1095-9572 (Electronic) IS - 1053-8119 (Linking) VI - 64 DP - 2013 Jan 1 TI - BDNF Val66Met polymorphism and goal-directed behavior in healthy elderly - evidence from auditory distraction. PG - 290-8 LID - S1053-8119(12)00888-9 [pii] LID - 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2012.08.079 [doi] AB - Aging affects the ability to focus attention on a given task and to ignore distractors. These functions subserve response control processes for which fronto-striatal networks have been shown to play an important role. Within these networks, the brain-derived-neurotrophic-factor (BDNF), which is known to underlie aging effects, plays a pivotal role. We investigated how cognitive subprocesses constituting a cycle of distraction, orientation and refocusing of attention are affected by the functional BDNF Val66Met polymorphism using event-related potentials (ERPs) in 122 healthy elderly. Using an auditory distraction paradigm we found that the Val/Val genotype confers a disadvantage to its carriers. This disadvantage was partly compensated by intensified attentional shifting mechanisms. It could be based on response selection processes being more vulnerable against interference from distractors in this genotype group. Processes reflecting transient sensory memory processes, or the re-orientation of attention were not affected by the BDNF Val66Met polymorphism, suggesting a higher importance of BDNF for mechanisms related to response control, than stimulus processing. The results add on recent literature showing that the Met allele confers some benefit to its carriers. We suggest an account for unifying different results of BDNF Val66Met association studies in executive functions, based on the role of BDNF in fronto-striatal circuits. CI - Copyright (c) 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. FAU - Getzmann, Stephan AU - Getzmann S AD - Leibniz Research Centre for Working Environment and Human Factors at Technical University of Dortmund (IfADo), Germany. stephan.getzmann@rub.de FAU - Gajewski, Patrick D AU - Gajewski PD FAU - Hengstler, Jan G AU - Hengstler JG FAU - Falkenstein, Michael AU - Falkenstein M FAU - Beste, Christian AU - Beste C LA - eng PT - Journal Article PT - Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't DEP - 20120904 PL - United States TA - Neuroimage JT - NeuroImage JID - 9215515 RN - 0 (Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor) RN - 7171WSG8A2 (BDNF protein, human) SB - IM MH - Aged MH - Aged, 80 and over MH - Attention/*physiology MH - Auditory Perception/*genetics MH - Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor/*genetics MH - *Cues MH - Female MH - *Goals MH - Humans MH - Male MH - Perceptual Masking/*physiology MH - Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide/*genetics MH - Reference Values EDAT- 2012/09/12 06:00 MHDA- 2013/06/05 06:00 CRDT- 2012/09/12 06:00 PHST- 2012/05/03 00:00 [received] PHST- 2012/08/23 00:00 [revised] PHST- 2012/08/27 00:00 [accepted] PHST- 2012/09/12 06:00 [entrez] PHST- 2012/09/12 06:00 [pubmed] PHST- 2013/06/05 06:00 [medline] AID - S1053-8119(12)00888-9 [pii] AID - 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2012.08.079 [doi] PST - ppublish SO - Neuroimage. 2013 Jan 1;64:290-8. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2012.08.079. Epub 2012 Sep 4.