EEG data reveal how tightly connected the frontal cortex (red) is to the rest of the brain in depression (left) and health (right).
 is to the rest of the brain in depression (<i>left</i>) and health (<i>right</i>).</p>)
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Like an overwhelmed traffic cop, the depressed brain may transmit signals among regions in a dysfunctional way. Recent brain-imaging studies suggest that areas of the brain involved in mood, concentration and conscious thought are hyperconnected, which scientists believe could lead to the problems with focus, anxiety and memory frequently seen in depression.
Using functional MRI and electroencephalography (EEG), psychiatrist Andrew Leuchter of the University of California, Los Angeles, and his colleagues measured the activity of depressed patients' brains at rest. They found that the limbic and cortical areas, which together produce and process our emotions, sent a barrage of neural messages back and forth to one another—much more than in the brains of healthy patients. These signals, Leuchter says, can amplify depressed people's negative thoughts and act like white noise, drowning out the other neural messages telling them to move on.
A separate study by psychiatrist Shuqiao Yao of Central South University in Hunan, China, produced a more nuanced view of these two areas' hyperconnectivity. In work published in Biological Psychiatry in April, Yao and his colleagues reported that stronger links among certain corticolimbic circuits are seen in patients more prone to rumination, the act of continuously replaying negative thoughts. Less connectivity in other corticolimbic circuits corresponded to autobiographical memory impairments, which is another common feature that appears in depression.
Scientists do not know whether these connectivity changes are a cause or an effect of depression. A study earlier this year in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, however, found that electroconvulsive therapy—formerly known as shock therapy—both alleviates depression's symptoms and decreases connectivity in the hub where the cortical and limbic systems intersect. These results, says lead author Jennifer S. Perrin, a psychologist at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland, confirm that hyperconnectivity is a hallmark of depression in the brain and should provide a target for new drugs and treatments.
This article was originally published with the title The Depression Connection.
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10 Comments
Add CommentREcent research nits that the hyperconnectivity induced in the same area by Transcendental Meditation actually *reduces* depression. Things are seldom as cut and dried as preliminary research suggests.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisTo what recent research are you referring to? The above article is merely reporting scientific findings and suggesting a translation. For argument's sake, let us assume your "recent research findings" are precise - it does not suggest this article's claim is not correct. To draw a parallel: In one scenario (depression) you are not behind the steering wheel and the automobile (your brain) is out of control, in the other scenario (meditation) you are behind the wheel having a thrill looking for a way to make it go faster. Just my humble opinion.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThis just sounds like the connection between OCD and depression.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWell, I was specifically referring to the finding that veterans with PTSD who learn TM show improvement on a wide variety of areas, including depression, within a few months of practice, even though ,the most consistent EEG change during meditation (which starts to show up outside of meditation over a period of months and years), is that of coherent Alpha EEG in roughly the same area of the brain that the researchers in the above paper associate with *increased* depression.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIOW, as I said, you have two conflicting studies: one showing that EEG coherence in a certain area is associated with increased depression, and one showing that a practice whose most consistent effect is to increase EEG coherence in the same area, is found to reduce depression.
I think the conflict can be reconciled by noting that Alpha EEG coherence in those areas found in the TM subjects is associated with a heightened sense of quiet self, along with a reduced likelihood of having random thoughts while the EEG coherence mentioned above is probably in the Gamma frequency range, which is associated with higher mental activity of all kinds.
The picture shown on this comment is misleading because it shows just the brain when is at Alpha. If one looks at the whole article in PlosOne one can notice that the Beta on the right side(F8 & T4) is more strong connected then the left (F7 & T3). It so happens that the right side is linked to negative thoughts/moods Doing neurofeedback with depressive people one finds the same patterns as shown on this article. By increasing (not lowering) the Beta on the left side the person becomes more outward oriented which means less rumination and so less depressive moments (less inwards oriented which is a right pattern). These mental states (and others) should be looked at as left/right brain differences/similarities in terms of the way the neurons communicate between each other but in terms of EEG power, coherence and asymmetry.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisInteresting, but what is your take on pure consciousness, balance between hemispheres and between front and back, is often close to 100%? There's even evidence of a zero-lag global sine wave in some advanced meditators, but of course this could just be volume conductance. https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=4124680926078&set=a.2219338093698.2126866.1555020826&type=1&theater
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMy own bet, assuming it isn't a measurement artifact is that the brief sine wave is some kind of global synchronization signal from the thalamus that might actually be common, but the brain is normally too noisy for it to be detected.
This is Amazing Research
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisDrugs, therapy and most important, a willingness to seek
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thishelp.
For me the drugs worked well, therapy brought even more
relief. PTSD is one aspect and could in many be cured
by therapy alone and perhaps meditation.
For those with chronic depression, drugs are the main
source of relief. Therapy can help but chemistry being what
it is, sometimes chemical balance can be achieved only
with proper medications.
I question the wisdom of manipulating these connections with drugs or EC therapy before it is known whether they represent a cause or an effect of depression. There is probably a feedback loop involved. Speaking as one who managed to control his own major depression for over twenty years by cognitive efforts alone, I can testify that "rumination" is, in the first place, the mind's effort to cope with negative thoughts, memories, and feelings that well up unbidden, and to get them into some sort of rational relationship with perceived reality. This is not a process that should be simply disrupted.(I am tempted on account of the EC experiments to say, "short-circuited.")Rather it needs to be productively directed, so that it does not degenerate into a vicious circle--a task best accomplished by psychotherapy, aided by medication if necessary.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisFurther to my remarks above, see Joorman, Dkane,& Gotlib (Behavior Therapy, 2006, link below):"...Our results support the formulation that rumination is composed
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisof an adaptive reflective pondering factor and a maladaptive brooding factor." Directing a patient's thinking toward the former and away from the latter is precisely what I suggest as the psychotherapist's task.
http://www.psy.miami.edu/faculty/jjoormann/publications/joormann_dkane_gotlib_2006.pdf