BDNF: What It Is and What the Evidence Shows

BDNF is a protein that supports neuron survival and synaptic plasticity, and its role in learning-related plasticity is well established in laboratory research. Peripheral blood BDNF, however, is not a validated proxy for BDNF activity in the living human brain, so a study showing that something raises circulating BDNF does not show it changed your brain.

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