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BDNF val66met polymorphism is associated with modified experience-dependent plasticity in human motor cortex

Nature Neuroscience volume 9, pages 735–737 (2006)Cite this article

Abstract

Motor training can induce profound physiological plasticity within primary motor cortex, including changes in corticospinal output and motor map topography. Using transcranial magnetic stimulation, we show that training-dependent increases in the amplitude of motor-evoked potentials and motor map reorganization are reduced in healthy subjects with a val66met polymorphism in the brain-derived neurotrophic factor gene (BDNF), as compared to subjects without the polymorphism. The results suggest that BDNF is involved in mediating experience-dependent plasticity of human motor cortex.

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Figure 1: Changes in motor map area with training.
Figure 2: Changes in MEP amplitude, map volume and center of gravity with training.

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Acknowledgements

We thank S. Wolf, E. Orr, D. Ro and V. Le. Studies were carried out in the General Clinical Research Center, College of Medicine, University of California Irvine, with funds provided by the National Center for Research Resources (5M01RR 00827-29, NS-45563) and the US Public Health Service. Work was conducted while J.A.K. was on a leave of absence from the Canadian Centre for Behavioural Neuroscience at the University of Lethbridge.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Brain Research Rehabilitation Center, Malcom Randall VA Hospital, 1601 SW Archer Road, Gainesville, 32608, Florida, USA

    Jeffrey A Kleim & Erin Pringle

  2. Department of Neuroscience, Mcknight Brain Institute, University of Florida, PO Box 100244, Gainesville, 32610, Florida, USA

    Jeffrey A Kleim & Erin Pringle

  3. Departments of Neurology and Anatomy & Neurobiology, University of California Irvine Medical Center, 101 The City Drive, Building 53, Room 203, Orange, 92868, California, USA

    Sheila Chan, Kellan Schallert & Steven C Cramer

  4. Department of Pediatrics, University of California Irvine, 2034 Hewitt Hall, Irvine, 92697, California, USA

    Vincent Procaccio & Richard Jimenez

  5. Center for Molecular and Mitochondrial Medicine and Genetics, University of California Irvine, 2034 Hewitt Hall, Irvine, 92697, California, USA

    Vincent Procaccio

Authors
  1. Jeffrey A Kleim
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  2. Sheila Chan
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  3. Erin Pringle
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  4. Kellan Schallert
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  5. Vincent Procaccio
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  6. Richard Jimenez
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  7. Steven C Cramer
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jeffrey A Kleim.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Table 1

Mean (+/− s.e.m.) MEP amplitude for all genotypes pre- and post-training. (PDF 50 kb)

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Kleim, J., Chan, S., Pringle, E. et al. BDNF val66met polymorphism is associated with modified experience-dependent plasticity in human motor cortex. Nat Neurosci 9, 735–737 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/nn1699

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