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Predicting change in symptoms of depression during the transition to university: The roles of BDNF and working memory capacity

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Abstract

Studies on depression risk emphasize the importance of both cognitive and genetic vulnerability factors. The present study has provided the first examination of whether working memory capacity, the BDNF Val66Met polymorphism, and their interaction predict changes in symptoms of depression during the transition to university. Early in the semester, students completed a self-report measure of depressive symptoms and a modified version of the reading span task to assess working memory capacity in the presence of both neutral and negative distractors. Whole blood was genotyped for the BDNF Val66Met polymorphism. Students returned at the end of the semester to complete additional self-report questionnaires. Neither working memory capacity nor the BDNF Val66Met polymorphism predicted change in depressive symptoms either independently or in interaction with self-reported semester difficulty. The BDNF Val66Met polymorphism, however, moderated the association between working memory capacity and symptom change. Among met carriers, lower working memory capacity in the presence of negative—but not neutral—distractors was associated with increased symptoms of depression over the semester. For the val/val group, working memory capacity did not predict symptom change. These findings contribute directly to biological and cognitive models of depression and highlight the importance of examining Gene × Cognition interactions when investigating risk for depression.

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Notes

  1. The regression predicting BDI-Time 2 with BDI-Time 1 as a covariate in Block 1 yielded parallel findings, and the interaction of BDNF and RSpan-Negative remained significant, p = .04. Similarly, separate regressions for RSpan-Neutral and RSpan-Negative yielded parallel results: The interaction between BDNF and RSpan-Neutral remained nonsignificant, p = .28, and the interaction between BDNF and RSpan-Negative remained significant, p = .02. The BDNF × RSpan-Negative and BDNF × RSpan-Neutral interactions were not moderated by ethnicity (coded with five dummy variables and non-Hispanic White as the reference group), gender (dummy coded with female as the reference group), or age (centered), ps > .05.

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This work was made possible by seed funds from a University of Miami Distinguished Professorship.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Stanford University, Jordan Hall, Building 420, Stanford, CA, 94305-2130, USA

    Joelle LeMoult

  2. Department of Psychology, University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL, USA

    Charles S. Carver

  3. Department of Psychology, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA

    Sheri L. Johnson

  4. Center for Advanced Study of the Behavioral Sciences (CASBS), Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA

    Sheri L. Johnson

  5. Department of Psychology, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA

    Jutta Joormann

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  1. Joelle LeMoult
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LeMoult, J., Carver, C.S., Johnson, S.L. et al. Predicting change in symptoms of depression during the transition to university: The roles of BDNF and working memory capacity. Cogn Affect Behav Neurosci 15, 95–103 (2015). https://doi.org/10.3758/s13415-014-0305-8

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