Association between hippocampal structure and serum Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF) in healthy adults: A registered report
L.M.C. Puhlmann,
R. Linz,
S.L. Valk,
P. Vrticka,
R. Vos de Wael,
A. Bernasconi,
N. Bernasconi,
B. Caldairou,
I. Papassotiriou,
G.P. Chrousos,
B.C. Bernhardt,
T. Singer,
V. Engert
Affiliations
L.M.C. Puhlmann
Research Group “Social Stress and Family Health”, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany; Leibniz Institute for Resilience Research, Mainz, Germany; Corresponding author(s).
R. Linz
Research Group “Social Stress and Family Health”, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany
S.L. Valk
Institute of Systems Neuroscience, Medical Faculty, Heinrich Heine University, Düsseldorf, Germany; Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine (INM-7: Brain and Behaviour), Research Centre Jülich, Germany; Otto Hahn Research Group “Cognitive Neurogenetics”, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany
P. Vrticka
Research Group “Social Stress and Family Health”, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany; Centre for Brain Science, Department of Psychology, University of Essex, Colchester, UK
R. Vos de Wael
McConnell Brain Imaging Centre, Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital, McGill University, H3A2B4, Montreal, Canada
A. Bernasconi
McConnell Brain Imaging Centre, Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital, McGill University, H3A2B4, Montreal, Canada
N. Bernasconi
McConnell Brain Imaging Centre, Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital, McGill University, H3A2B4, Montreal, Canada
B. Caldairou
McConnell Brain Imaging Centre, Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital, McGill University, H3A2B4, Montreal, Canada
I. Papassotiriou
Department of Clinical Biochemistry, ''Aghia Sophia'' Children's Hospital, Athens, Greece
G.P. Chrousos
First Department of Pediatrics, School of Medicine, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece
B.C. Bernhardt
McConnell Brain Imaging Centre, Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital, McGill University, H3A2B4, Montreal, Canada
T. Singer
Social Neuroscience Lab, Max Planck Society, Berlin, Germany
V. Engert
Research Group “Social Stress and Family Health”, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany; Institute of Psychosocial Medicine, Psychotherapy and Psychooncology, Jena University Hospital, Friedrich Schiller University, Jena, Germany
The hippocampus is a highly plastic brain structure supporting functions central to human cognition. Morphological changes in the hippocampus have been implicated in development, aging, as well as in a broad range of neurological and psychiatric disorders. A growing body of research suggests that hippocampal plasticity is closely linked to the actions of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF). However, evidence on the relationship between hippocampal volume (HCV) and peripheral BDNF levels is scarce and limited to elderly and patient populations. Further, despite evidence that BDNF expression differs throughout the hippocampus and is implicated in adult neurogenesis specifically in the dentate gyrus, no study has so far related peripheral BDNF levels to the volumes of individual hippocampal subfields. Besides its clinical implications, BDNF-facilitated hippocampal plasticity plays an important role in regulating cognitive and affective processes. In the current registered report, we investigated how serum BDNF (sBDNF) levels relate to volumes of the hippocampal formation and its subfields in a large sample of healthy adults (N = 279, 160 f) with a broad age range (20–55 years, mean 40.5) recruited in the context of the ReSource Project. We related HCV to basal sBDNF and, in a subsample (n = 103, 57 f), to acute stress-reactive change in sBDNF. We further tested the role of age as a moderator of both associations. Contrary to our hypotheses, neither basal sBDNF levels nor stress-reactive sBDNF change were associated with total HCV or volume of the dentate gyrus/cornu ammonis 4 (DG/CA4) subfield. We also found no evidence for a moderating effect of age on any of these associations. Our null results provide a first point of reference on the relationship between sBDNF and HCV in healthy mid-age, in contrast to patient or aging populations. We suggest that sBDNF levels have limited predictive value for morphological differences of the hippocampal structure when notable challenge to its neuronal integrity or to neurotrophic capacity is absent.
