Depression is not just a "bad mood" but real changes in brain tissue. Scientists have found that the disorder reduces gray matter volume not only in areas responsible for emotions and self-control, but also in regions that regulate vision and physical activity, reports infohub.kz.
According to the study published in the journal Nature Mental Health, scientists analyzed more than 23,000 brain scans.
"We wanted to find out whether a comprehensive approach to studying the brain using large datasets could provide more convincing evidence of brain changes associated with depression," explained the study's senior author, Janine D. Bijsterbosch.
She said the researchers used six large datasets, each containing between 185 and 11,000 participants. Each dataset was analyzed separately to link summary measures of brain structure and function with depression measures (severity and risk associated with personality traits). The results were then combined.
In line with earlier studies, the scientists found that depression is associated with reduced gray matter volume in three brain regions: the frontal cortex, anterior cingulate cortex, and insular cortex. These brain areas are known to play a role in emotion regulation, decision-making, motivation, and internal processing of bodily sensations.
"The key unexpected finding was that smaller sizes of brain regions in the motor and visual areas were associated with higher levels of depression," said Bijsterbosch.
She emphasized that previously, depression symptoms were not linked to motor activity or vision.
Now the researchers plan to find out how the discovered changes in motor and visual brain areas are related to specific depression symptoms. In the future, this could help develop more accurate diagnostic methods and new approaches to treating the disease.
Earlier, American scientists proved that depression literally blocks the brain.