Breakthrough: Scientists claim they’ve identified the physical source of depression in the brain which could lead to a cure – TheLiberal.ie – Our News, Your Views

Breakthrough: Scientists claim they’ve identified the physical source of depression in the brain which could lead to a cure




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There’s possible amazing news emerging from scientists at the University of Warwick in the UK and the Fudan University in China.

Two sets of scientists have scanned the brains of around 1,000 people and found startling results – depression IS conceivably a physical problem.

The region of the brain that serves as the physical source of feelings of depression has been identified, with new MRI data being the latest evidence to show that depression isn’t just a ‘frame of mind’.

The results suggest that feelings of loss and low self-esteem are tied to the functioning of the orbitofrontal cortex – a region of the brain associated with sensory integration, expectation, and decision-making.

“Our finding, with the combination of big data we collected around the world and our novel methods, enables us to locate the roots of depression, which should open up new avenues for better therapeutic treatments in the near future for this horrible disease,” says computational psychiatrist Jianfeng Feng from the University of Warwick in the UK and Fudan University in China.

Feng’s team recruited 909 people in China to take part in MRI brain scans. Roughly half had depression and the rest did not.

The scans showed that depression is related to the neural activity of two different portions of the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC): the medial OFC and lateral OFC.

The medial OFC becomes active when we receive rewards. In other words, when something good happens, the medial OFC fires up, and we feel good about it.

But the researchers found that the participants with depression showed weaker neural connections between the medial OFC and the brain’s memory systems in the hippocampus and this is where the physical issue arises.

In addition to displaying weaker connections with the medial OFC, depression patients in the study also showed stronger neural connections around the lateral OFC – which is involved with processing non-reward outcomes, such as punishments.

These stronger connections were made with parts of the brain including the precuneus – thought to be involved with our sense of self – and the angular gyrus, which is responsible for memory retrieval and attention.

So on top of being further evidence that depression – and mental illness in general – is not just a frame of mind, the research could lead to new personalised medications that specifically target the orbitofrontal cortex and its two sub-regions for more effective relief.

The scientists are working hard on their results, but they claim that for now – these results show depression is an actual tangible physical problem and if that is the case, it is curable.

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