Authors' reply

We thank Yeebo for this comment on our paper, raising an important point that the frequency of genetic polymorphisms tends to vary between different ethnic groups. In our study, we had sought to investigate the association of the BDNF Val66Met polymorphism with imaging phenotypes in the context of major depressive disorder, rather than an investigation of an association for the polymorphism with major depressive disorder. As Yeebo states that we had sought ‘to determine whether the same neural effects would be observed in healthy individuals’, we would like to clarify that we had investigated whether the effects of the polymorphism on specific brain regions in healthy individuals would also be observed in the same brain regions in individuals with major depressive disorder.