Summary: Even after the symptoms, people who have undergone depression can maintain increased sensitivity to punishment and negative feedback. A new study revealed that the brain’s inshangling – the key to the treatment of aversive signals – is hyperactive in people with depression given, in particular during the anticipation of unpleasant results.
These individuals have also shown reduced connectivity between Habenula and the reward regions producing dopamine, suggesting a persistent difficulty in regulating stress responses. The results can explain why up to 80% of people relapse within five years and could lead to better tools to identify those who are still at risk.
Key facts:
- Habenula Hyperactivity: Persons with a given depression showed an increased habenula activity during the anticipation of punishment.
- Reduced reward circuits: Connectivity between Habenula and dopamine systems linked to the award has been reduced.
- Risal risk badge: These persistent changes can help explain high relapse rates and to shed light on future preventive therapies.
Source: Elsevier
Researchers found that even after recovery, people who have already undergone depression can maintain increased sensitivity to negative clues and deal with challenges in the regulation of responses to potential punishment.
The results of the new study in Biological psychiatry: cognitive neuroscience and neuroimageryPublished by Elsevier, could lead to better ways to identify individuals at risk of relapse and help develop more targeted interventions to improve long -term recovery and prevent future episodes of depression.
Depression is characterized by high relapse rates, with up to 80% of people with a return of symptoms within five years, demonstrating that recovery does not always guarantee lasting resilience. To improve prevention, better understanding of the underlying mechanisms that contribute to the vulnerability of an individual to relapse is necessary.
The main investigator Henricus G. Ruhé, MD, PHD, Radboud University Medical Center, Department of Psychiatry and Donders Institute for Brain-Cognition and Behavior, Nijmegen, Netherlands, says: “The high relapse rates observed in depression suggest that processes must be continuous processes in the brain.
“Previous research has shown that people with depression are often sensitive to punishment, even after remission.
“We focused on the Hardenula – a small region of the brain involved in the treatment of negative comments. We wanted to know if anomalies in this system persist even after someone has recovered from depressive symptoms. ”
For this study, the researchers used functional MRI (IRM) to assess brain activity during an aversive learning task in 36 patients with recurring depression and 27 healthy witnesses. Participants learned associations between an unpleasant image and bitter taste while undergoing the inclusive.
Imaging has revealed evidence that individuals suffering from dismissed depression have shown an increase in Habenula increased specifically during the expectation of punishment, as well as reduced connectivity between Habenula and the ventral tegmental zone, an important nucleus of the average brain responsible for the production of the activity of the activity of neurotransmitters linked to the reward and an area considered to be regulated by Hardenula activity.
These models suggest increased sensitivity to negative clues and reduced capacity to regulate responses to potential punishment, even after the symptoms calmed down.
Editor of chief Biological psychiatry: cognitive neuroscience and neuroimagery Cameron S. Carter, MD, University of California Irvine, concludes: “Although many things are known about how depression affects brain function during active disease, we have little account if these changes persist after recovery.
“This study stresses that even when individuals no longer have obvious symptoms of depression, they can always feel increased sensitivity to negative clues, which could contribute to the risk of relapse.
“Understanding these persistent effects could lead to better ways to identify individuals at risk and help develop more targeted interventions to improve long -term recovery and prevent future depression episodes.”
About this news of the research of depression and neuroscience
Author: Eileen Leahy
Source: Elsevier
Contact: Eileen Leahy – Elsevier
Picture: The image is credited with Neuroscience News
Original search: Open access.
“”Averseive learning signals aberring in the habenula in patients who have been suffering from recurring depressionBy Henricus G. Ruhé et al. Biological psychiatry: cognitive neuroscience and neuroimagery
Abstract
Averseive learning signals aberring in the habenula in patients who have been suffering from recurring depression
Background
Hypersensitivity to punishment is one of the fundamental characteristics of major depressive disorder. Hypersensitivity to punishment has been proposed from an aberrant aversive learning.
One of the key areas of reverse learning is Habenula. Although evidence of a disgusting dysfunctional learning in depressed patients are well established, it remains largely unexplored if this dysfunction and its neural correlates persist during the symptomatic remission of depression.
Methods
The functional MRI data of 36 patients given without medication with recurrent depressive depressive disorder (CT) and 27 healthy witness subjects participating in a classic Pavlovian packaging task were evaluated in a calculation modeling framework to assess the temporal activation of the difference in clothing during aversive learning.
In addition, generalized psychophysiological interaction analyzes have been carried out to assess the functional connectivity of the temporal difference signal with the habenula as a a priori Region of interest.
Results
Compared to healthy witnesses, patients have shown a significant increase in activation of reverse learning linked to a temporal difference in bilateral habenula. This activation was correlated with the residual symptoms in the MDD group delivered. In addition, patients presented a decrease in functional connectivity between the Hardenula and the Ventral Tegmental Zone compared to the Witnesses.
Conclusions
The increased activity of the Hardenula during reverse learning, in particular while waiting for punishment, as well as a decrease in the functional connectivity of the Tegmentary Zone of the Bike Harden in Patients with CT, reflect hypersensitivity and / or the inability to regulate, the impact of aversive environmental and punishment.
Registration at the trial
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