PMID- 30967530 OWN - NLM STAT- MEDLINE DCOM- 20200109 LR - 20210109 IS - 2158-3188 (Electronic) IS - 2158-3188 (Linking) VI - 9 IP - 1 DP - 2019 Apr 9 TI - Acute exercise-induced enhancement of fear inhibition is moderated by BDNF Val66Met polymorphism. PG - 131 LID - 10.1038/s41398-019-0464-z [doi] LID - 131 AB - Rodent research indicates that acute physical exercise facilitates fear learning and inhibition. Expression of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) may moderate the memory enhancing effects of acute exercise. We assessed the role of acute exercise in modulating extinction retention in humans, and investigated the extent to which the BDNF polymorphism influenced extinction retention. Seventy non-clinical participants engaged in a differential fear potentiated startle paradigm involving conditioning and extinction followed by random assignment to either intense exercise (n = 35) or no exercise (n = 35). Extinction retention was assessed 24 h later. Saliva samples were collected to index BDNF genotype. Exercised participants displayed significantly lower fear 24 h later relative to non-exercised participants. Moderation analyses indicated that after controlling for gender, the BDNF Val66Met polymorphism moderated the relationship between exercise and fear recovery 24 h later, such that exercise was associated with greater fear recovery in individuals with the Met allele. These findings provide initial evidence that acute exercise can impact fear extinction in humans and this effect is reduced in Met-allele carriers. This finding accords with the role of BDNF in extinction learning, and has implications for augmenting exposure-based therapies for anxiety disorders. FAU - Keyan, Dharani AU - Keyan D AD - University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia. FAU - Bryant, Richard A AU - Bryant RA AUID- ORCID: 0000-0002-9607-819X AD - University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia. r.bryant@unsw.edu.au. LA - eng PT - Journal Article PT - Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't DEP - 20190409 PL - United States TA - Transl Psychiatry JT - Translational psychiatry JID - 101562664 RN - 0 (Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor) RN - 7171WSG8A2 (BDNF protein, human) SB - IM MH - Adolescent MH - Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor/*genetics MH - *Conditioning, Psychological MH - *Exercise MH - Extinction, Psychological MH - Fear/*physiology MH - Female MH - Humans MH - Individuality MH - Inhibition, Psychological MH - Learning MH - Male MH - *Memory MH - Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide MH - Young Adult PMC - PMC6456490 COIS- The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest. EDAT- 2019/04/11 06:00 MHDA- 2020/01/10 06:00 PMCR- 2019/04/09 CRDT- 2019/04/11 06:00 PHST- 2018/12/09 00:00 [received] PHST- 2019/03/23 00:00 [accepted] PHST- 2019/02/27 00:00 [revised] PHST- 2019/04/11 06:00 [entrez] PHST- 2019/04/11 06:00 [pubmed] PHST- 2020/01/10 06:00 [medline] PHST- 2019/04/09 00:00 [pmc-release] AID - 10.1038/s41398-019-0464-z [pii] AID - 464 [pii] AID - 10.1038/s41398-019-0464-z [doi] PST - epublish SO - Transl Psychiatry. 2019 Apr 9;9(1):131. doi: 10.1038/s41398-019-0464-z.