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A new study suggests that feelings of sadness or anxiety may be related to an increase in "chatter" between two areas of the brain.
In the study, published today (November 8) in the journal Cell, a group of researchers listened to electrical conversations in the brain – in other words, the signals that brain regions are transmitting. They found that when a person felt depressed, communication between brain cells from two specific regions of the brain involved in memory and emotions increased.
The researchers noted that it was not clear if this increased brain communication was a cause or effect of bad mood. However, the results allowed them to stay home, where the action is. [5 Ways Your Emotions Influence Your World (and Vice Versa)]
What is clear, however, is that anxiety, depression and mood have physical manifestations in the brain. "For many patients, it is very important to know that when they feel depressed, this is due to something measurable and concrete in their brain," said Dr. Vikaas Sohal, co-author of the report. study, psychiatrist at the University of California. San Francisco. "For some patients, this can provide important validation and eliminate stigma, allowing them to seek appropriate treatment."
The researchers conducted the study with the help of a technique called intracranial electroencephalography (EEG). As the word "intracranial" implies, the method involves implanting electrodes or wires inside the skull – in and on the brain. These implanted electrodes record the electrical activity of the brain cells (in other words, record their communication).
Previous studies focusing on brain activity, mood and emotions had primarily been conducted using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), a type of erythrocyte. imaging that measures changes in blood flow in different parts of the brain. But these "are indirect measures of brain activity" and "can not measure changes in brain activity that occur on very fast time scales", such as those measured in this study said Sohal.
However, implanting electrodes in a person's brain is an invasive procedure. The researchers recruited patients waiting for surgery and already had electrodes in their brains – in this case, 21 patients with epilepsy whose brain electrodes were primarily used to identify brain regions responsible for their convulsions.
The researchers recorded the brain activity of these patients for seven to ten days. During the same period, patients followed their mood with the help of a mood journal.
The study found that in 13 of the 21 patients, bad mood was associated with an increase in communication between the amygdala (region of the brain involved in the treatment of emotions) and the hippocampus (involved in the memory).
"The idea that memories of negative experiences and negative emotions are closely related is an old idea in psychiatry and is at the heart of cognitive-behavioral therapy," Sohal told Live Science. "Our results could represent a biological basis for this relationship." (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is a method used by mental health experts to treat conditions such as depression and anxiety, which involves changing a person's thinking and behavior.)
A sad look on the radio
It has long been known that the amygdala and the hippocampus are involved in mood, depression and anxiety, Sohal said. However, he compared prior knowledge to the knowledge that a song was broadcast on a radio station, without knowing which station to tune.
Now we know the radio frequency – the model of activity or the communication of neurons – and can therefore adjust our devices properly, said Sohal. In other words, these discoveries could be useful for developing new treatments that target this activity in the brain, Sohal said. Such treatments could, for example, be aimed at managing or reducing the excess of communication between the amygdala and the hippocampus.
Yet, we do not know exactly how emotion and memory mix. Sohal hypothesized that when a person is depressed, the negative emotions in the amygdala trigger the memory of sad memories, or vice versa.
It is also difficult to know if the bad mood causes a multiplication of the discussions in these regions, or if a multiplication of the conversations causes a bad mood. Even though it's the last one, says Sohal, and that it turns out that another part of the brain is ultimately responsible for the bad mood of one's body. nobody, it is likely that increased signage always helps to intensify the emotions. But if brain activity is the result of a bad mood, researchers might be able to tap and measure it – such as a pacemaker – measures the heart rate – to monitor the level of sadness. a severely depressed patient, for example.
The team now hopes to understand how this signal occurs and whether it affects other parts of the brain.
Originally posted on Live Science.
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