Abolfazl Shayan; Hamideh Iranmanesh; Mehdi Yazdanpanah; Mohammad Ali Dowlati
Abstract
Introduction: Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) is a protein that is highly expressed in the structures of the central nervous system and affects synaptic plasticity and the acquisition of motor and cognitive skills. This is while val66met polymorphism disrupts the amount and expression of BDNF. ...
Read More
Introduction: Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) is a protein that is highly expressed in the structures of the central nervous system and affects synaptic plasticity and the acquisition of motor and cognitive skills. This is while val66met polymorphism disrupts the amount and expression of BDNF. So, in the present study, the researchers aimed to investigate the effect of polymorphism on the learning of a motor sequence task.Methods: One hundred students from Kashan University (mean age 21.60 ± 2.60) participated in the study. After extraction of Genomic DNA, implementation of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) by forwarding primer 5-ACTCTGGAGAGCGTGAAT-3 and reverse primer 5-ATACTGTCACACACGCTG-3, analyzing PCR by 1.5 percent Electrophoresis Gel, and eventually, DNA sequencing by Sequencing Analyzer, 46 participants were identified without the polymorphism and 54 participants were identified met-carriers (affected by the polymorphism). Then, retention, visual-spatial transfer, and motor transfer of the motor sequence task were tested by the Dynamic Arm Movement Task.Results: Results showed people without the polymorphism progressed faster than met-carriers and also performed the task better on the retention test (P=0/001). They were also better than met-carriers in the motor transfer test (P=0/001), but there was no significant difference between the two groups in the visual-spatial transfer test (P=0/176).Conclusion: It seems that met-carriers, in any way, go through the early stages of motor learning, but due to possible problems caused by the polymorphism, they are weak in completing the learning process.
