#neuroimaging — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #neuroimaging, aggregated by home.social.
-
DATE: September 12, 2026 at 10:00AM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: Tracking brain waves reveals a surprising twist in how different generations form social bonds
Getting to know someone across multiple encounters can ease feelings of loneliness, and new research indicates that these budding relationships physically synchronize brain activity in unexpected ways. A new study, published in PLOS Biology, suggests that when younger and older adults regularly participate in creative activities together, their brains coordinate differently over time compared to pairs of the same age. Over six weeks of collaborative drawing, people of different generations showed decreasing neural synchronization, while same-age peers showed increasing synchronization, even as both groups reported feeling closer to their partners.
People of all ages experience perceived social isolation, and community programs that mix generations are a popular way to combat these feelings of loneliness. These programs rely on the idea that repeated interactions foster meaningful social bonds. However, the physical brain changes that happen as these relationships form are mostly unknown to scientists.
“As the global population ages, and with social isolation acknowledged as a global health risk, it is critical to understand how social bonds form between people from the same and different generations,” Ryssa Moffat, a postdoctoral researcher at ETH Zurich’s Social Brain Sciences Lab, told PsyPost. “My motivation to study social interactions between seniors and young adults grew from positive experiences getting to know seniors around the world. The idea for this project really gained momentum when I read statistics about the growing proportion of older adults globally and learned about the risks of loneliness and social isolation.”
To study these physical changes in real time, scientists use a technique called functional near-infrared spectroscopy. This involves participants wearing a flexible cap embedded with sensors that shine safe levels of light through the scalp to measure changes in blood flow in specific brain areas. This tool allows researchers to track interpersonal neural synchrony, which is the extent to which two people’s brain activity aligns in time while they interact.
Researchers pay special attention to two specific brain regions during social tasks. The first is the temporoparietal junction, an area near the ears that helps people process social information and understand others’ perspectives. The second is the inferior frontal gyrus, an area near the temples involved in paying attention to the same thing as a partner.
A progression of recent research provides evidence that social bonds shift brain-to-brain dynamics as relationships unfold. For instance, a 2022 meta-analysis found that working together on a cooperative task consistently synchronizes the frontal and temporoparietal brain regions. This aligns with research covered by PsyPost in 2024, which found that brain synchronization between humans and dogs increases as they become more familiar with each other over several days.
In human relationships, a 2024 experiment indicated that brain synchrony between two people naturally shifts over the course of a conversation depending on whether they are friends or strangers. Building on this evidence, the authors of a 2024 review proposed that using mobile brain scanning to track neural alignment across repeated sessions is essential for understanding how social bonds develop across generations. The new research, led by Moffat and Emily S. Cross, put this concept into practice.
The researchers recruited 61 pairs of strangers from the community. They formed 31 intergenerational pairs, consisting of one younger adult and one adult aged 69 or older, and 30 same-generation pairs made up of two younger adults. The pairs met once a week for six weeks to complete a creative drawing program.
At the start of each session, the participants filled out surveys measuring their current feelings of loneliness, their sense of closeness to their drawing partner, and their attitudes toward people of different age groups. After completing the surveys, researchers fitted the participants with the sensor caps.
The pairs then completed three separate drawing tasks using oil pastels, lasting five minutes each. They were instructed not to talk during the drawing portion. For the first drawing, they worked independently, separated by a visual divider. For the next two drawings, the divider was removed and the pair worked together on a single piece of paper. The sessions concluded with a short puzzle or game.
“It is very exciting to have mapped how synchrony emerges among younger and older adults for the first time,” Moffat said. She noted that they were able “to show how patterns of synchrony change across repeated encounters with information from each encounter, instead of just the first and the last encounter.”
Over the six weeks, feelings of loneliness dropped by about 1 percent per session for both groups. Feelings of social closeness increased by about 4 percent per session, indicating that the program successfully fostered social bonds. “These small but robust changes were observed for same-generation pairs and intergenerational pairs alike,” Moffat noted. The intergenerational pairs generally reported feeling less lonely than the same-generation pairs, and they held more positive attitudes toward other generations.
When analyzing the brain data from all the sessions combined, the researchers found that interpersonal neural synchrony was greater when the pairs drew together compared to when they drew alone. This brain alignment was especially high in the temporoparietal junction and inferior frontal gyrus.
The findings are in line with research covered by PsyPost earlier in 2026, which found that engaging in shared activities together produces greater interpersonal neural synchrony than doing them alone, though that study measured brain alignment during shared music listening among friends rather than interactive drawing across different generations.
Tracking the brain alignment across the six weeks presented an unexpected pattern. For the same-generation pairs, neural synchrony in the right temporoparietal junction increased as the weeks went on. For the intergenerational pairs, neural synchrony in this same area actually decreased over the six weeks.
“I was initially surprised to see synchrony levels decrease for intergenerational dyads,” Moffat explained. “My assumption that we would see increases in synchrony was based on the existing studies comparing strangers, friends, and romantic partners who attend a single session. In these studies, the closer people are to one another, the more synchrony they tend to show.”
The authors suggest that this divergence might reflect how different age pairs integrate social information. “The main takeaway from our study is that the way in which people’s brains synchronize during cooperation depends on who they’re interacting with and the common ground shared by the interacting people,” Moffat said. Because synchrony is believed to reflect how fluently people can predict each other, it is amplified when prediction is less fluent.
Younger pairs might monitor each other’s attention more closely as they become familiar, leading to higher synchrony. As Moffat noted, “they may engage in unpredictable behaviors to keep the interactions interesting and engaging.” In contrast, mixed-generation pairs might require less active monitoring of their partner’s attention once they establish a comfortable routine. “As older and younger people become better acquainted and form more common ground, they can predict each other more fluently and we see reductions in synchrony between brains in certain brain regions,” she added.
The researchers also noticed relationships between the physical brain data and the survey responses. Across all the pairs, reporting higher social closeness predicted an increase in synchrony between the inferior frontal gyrus and the temporoparietal junction. Pairs with more similar levels of loneliness showed greater synchrony in the inferior frontal gyrus when drawing together, which might indicate that sharing a similar social mindset shapes how easily two people coordinate their attention.
One common misconception to avoid is the assumption that more synchrony is always better. “If we start from the standpoint that synchrony increases when predicting another person’s actions is more challenging, it’s probable that excessively high levels of synchrony indicate excessive challenge and that very low levels may indicate a lack of engagement,” Moffat explained. Instead, a “happy medium might be optimal,” where navigating different levels of predictability keeps people socially fit.
There are a few other things to keep in mind about this study. The brain scans targeted specific areas associated with social processing and attention, so the results do not capture activity across the entire brain. The experiment also specifically restricted verbal communication during the drawing tasks, meaning brain alignment might look different if the pairs were talking freely.
Additionally, the study only compared mixed-generation pairs to young-adult pairs. The researchers did not include a group of two older adults, which means some of the differences observed between the groups might relate to general age-related brain changes rather than the specific dynamic of mixing generations. Technical issues also caused a few sensors to fail during the experiment, slightly reducing the amount of data available for the right side of the brain.
Future studies could explore whether other types of common ground, such as shared cultural backgrounds or long-term hobbies, shape brain synchronization over time. Expanding this research into larger group settings could also provide a better understanding of how community arts programs physically benefit participants.
Moffat and her colleagues plan to expand on these findings by analyzing the other behavioral data they collected. “Alongside the recordings of brain activity, we also recorded a multitude of other signals including motion capture of body movements, performance on collaborative games and puzzles, the actual drawings that the participants co-created, as well as participants’ subjective experiences,” she said. “Our next steps are to analyze the other signals and to bring them together to understand how social connections form from a holistic perspective.”
The study, “Social interactions between people of same and different generations shape longitudinal changes in interpersonal neural synchrony, loneliness, and social connection,” was authored by Ryssa Moffat, Guillaume Dumas, and Emily S. Cross.
-------------------------------------------------
Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org
Unofficial Psychology Today Xitter to toot feed at Psych Today Unofficial Bot @PTUnofficialBot
-------------------------------------------------
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #IntergenerationalBonds #BrainSynchrony #SocialNeuroscience #LonelinessReduction #GenerationalBridge #Neuroimaging #InterpersonalNeuralSynchrony #CreativeCollaboration #DTMBrainResearch #PLOSBiology
-
DATE: September 11, 2026 at 12:00PM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: Brain scans reveal how recurrent depression leaves a lasting mark on the amygdala
Brain scans reveal that elevated activity in the emotion-processing center is tied to a person’s history of recurrent depression, rather than their current mood. The large study, published in Psychological Medicine, suggests that each major depressive episode may leave a lasting biological mark that increases future vulnerability to the disease.
Major depressive disorder is a common psychiatric condition that affects millions of people worldwide. Currently, psychiatrists diagnose the condition based on clinical interviews and patient history. There are no biological markers, like a blood test or a brain scan, to guide treatment choices.
Functional magnetic resonance imaging, or fMRI, allows researchers to observe the brain in action by tracking blood-oxygen levels. When a brain region becomes active, it requires more oxygen, leading to localized changes in blood flow. The scanner detects these magnetic differences to map out neural activity.
Scientists often use this technology to study the amygdala, an almond-shaped structure deep inside the brain that processes fear and negative emotions. Early brain imaging research suggested that people with clinical depression have hyperactive amygdalae when looking at negative images. But a recent analysis of a massive dataset called the UK Biobank found no association between amygdala activity and current depression symptoms.
Jerke J. van den Berg, a biomedical researcher at the University of Amsterdam, and his colleagues designed a new study to better understand this discrepancy. They suspected that previous research might have missed the broader picture by only looking at a patient’s current mood. The researchers focused on a concept called the kindling theory.
The kindling theory proposes that an initial depressive episode makes the brain more sensitive to stress. After the brain has been sensitized by that first experience, it takes progressively less trauma to trigger a relapse. To test if the amygdala reflects this effect, the research team decided to look at a person’s lifetime history of depression, known as a trait, rather than their current symptoms, known as a state.
The researchers utilized data from the UK Biobank, a long-term population health study. They analyzed functional MRI scans from a subset of participants, totaling more than 11,000 individuals. While inside the scanner, participants completed a visual exercise called the Hariri task.
During the task, participants were shown a target image of an angry or fearful face at the top of a screen. They were then asked to select the matching face from two options at the bottom. This specific visual matching exercise is known to reliably stimulate the amygdala.
Brain activity can vary widely from person to person based on age, gender, and head movement during a scan. To account for this natural variation, the research team used a statistical technique called normative modeling. They analyzed scans from over 6,400 healthy participants to establish a baseline of expected amygdala activity. This works much like a pediatric growth chart, which maps out normal ranges for a child’s height and weight.
Next, the researchers evaluated how much the brain activity of nearly 5,000 other participants deviated from this baseline model. They categorized these individuals based on their self-reported mental health histories. The groups included healthy controls, people who had experienced a single depressive episode, those with moderate recurrence involving two to five episodes, and those with a high recurrence of six or more episodes.
For this initial cross-sectional analysis, the team focused strictly on participants who were currently in remission from their depression. The initial results were not statistically significant when the team analyzed the unaltered brain scans. However, once they applied the normative modeling technique to account for age and gender variations, a distinct pattern emerged.
The analysis revealed a measurable association between an individual’s history of depression and their amygdala response. Participants with a high recurrence of depressive episodes showed a heightened amygdala reaction to negative faces compared to healthy controls.
When the researchers looked at individuals actively experiencing a depressive episode, they found no distinct increase in brain activity compared to controls. This suggested that amygdala reactivity represents a long-term biological trait, rather than a temporary state reflecting current mood.
The researchers also wanted to know how medication might influence these brain signals. They noticed that a higher percentage of people in the severe recurrence group were taking antidepressants compared to those with a single past episode. They repeated their cross-sectional analysis, this time removing any participants who were actively taking antidepressant medications.
Excluding medicated individuals strengthened the observed differences between the healthy controls and the recurrent depression groups. The findings indicated that antidepressants might dampen the hyperactive amygdala signal associated with a history of recurrent depression. Because the medication reduced amygdala reactivity, including these participants in the initial data pool slightly masked the true extent of the brain changes.
To see how the brain changes over time, the team conducted a longitudinal analysis. They focused on a smaller group of participants who returned for a second brain scan roughly two and a half years after their initial visit. The researchers categorized these individuals based on whether they had suffered new depressive episodes between the two scans.
For this longitudinal evaluation, the team specifically analyzed people who were in remission during both of their imaging sessions. Participants who began the study with a history of just one depressive episode, but then experienced multiple new episodes before their second scan, exhibited an increase in amygdala reactivity over time.
This brain change supported the kindling theory. It suggests that new depressive episodes incrementally alter how the brain processes negative emotional information, leaving a biological mark even after symptoms fade.
The study relied on a large dataset, but the researchers noted that the effect sizes were relatively small. These findings do not mean that a functional MRI scan can be used to diagnose depression in a clinical setting right now. The results are not robust enough to predict an individual’s exact risk of a relapse based on a single brain scan.
The data collection methods also presented certain limitations. The study depended on participants accurately recalling their own mental health histories, which can introduce memory biases. People might misremember exactly how many distinct depressive episodes they experienced over the course of their lives.
The mental health questionnaires also combined treatments for nerves, anxiety, and depression into a single metric. Because of this, the researchers could not strictly isolate the effects of anxiety disorders from the effects of clinical depression. Future studies will need to track larger groups of symptomatic individuals over extended periods of time to untangle these variables.
Scientists hope that advancing neuroimaging techniques will eventually reduce the normal fluctuations seen in brain scans. Over time, mapping the biology of recurrent depression could help psychiatrists tailor treatments to a patient’s individual history, moving away from the current trial-and-error approach to prescribing medication.
The study, “Normative amygdala fMRI response during emotional processing as a trait of depressive symptoms in the UK Biobank,” was authored by Jerke J. van den Berg, Henricus G. Ruhé, Henk A. Marquering, Liesbeth Reneman, and Matthan W. A. Caan.
-------------------------------------------------
Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org
Unofficial Psychology Today Xitter to toot feed at Psych Today Unofficial Bot @PTUnofficialBot
-------------------------------------------------
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #DepressionResearch #Amygdala #fMRI #Neuroimaging #KindlingTheory #UKBiobank #MentalHealthAwareness #BiomarkersInDepression #LongitudinalStudy #NeuroscienceAdvances
-
DATE: September 11, 2026 at 12:00PM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: Brain scans reveal how recurrent depression leaves a lasting mark on the amygdala
Brain scans reveal that elevated activity in the emotion-processing center is tied to a person’s history of recurrent depression, rather than their current mood. The large study, published in Psychological Medicine, suggests that each major depressive episode may leave a lasting biological mark that increases future vulnerability to the disease.
Major depressive disorder is a common psychiatric condition that affects millions of people worldwide. Currently, psychiatrists diagnose the condition based on clinical interviews and patient history. There are no biological markers, like a blood test or a brain scan, to guide treatment choices.
Functional magnetic resonance imaging, or fMRI, allows researchers to observe the brain in action by tracking blood-oxygen levels. When a brain region becomes active, it requires more oxygen, leading to localized changes in blood flow. The scanner detects these magnetic differences to map out neural activity.
Scientists often use this technology to study the amygdala, an almond-shaped structure deep inside the brain that processes fear and negative emotions. Early brain imaging research suggested that people with clinical depression have hyperactive amygdalae when looking at negative images. But a recent analysis of a massive dataset called the UK Biobank found no association between amygdala activity and current depression symptoms.
Jerke J. van den Berg, a biomedical researcher at the University of Amsterdam, and his colleagues designed a new study to better understand this discrepancy. They suspected that previous research might have missed the broader picture by only looking at a patient’s current mood. The researchers focused on a concept called the kindling theory.
The kindling theory proposes that an initial depressive episode makes the brain more sensitive to stress. After the brain has been sensitized by that first experience, it takes progressively less trauma to trigger a relapse. To test if the amygdala reflects this effect, the research team decided to look at a person’s lifetime history of depression, known as a trait, rather than their current symptoms, known as a state.
The researchers utilized data from the UK Biobank, a long-term population health study. They analyzed functional MRI scans from a subset of participants, totaling more than 11,000 individuals. While inside the scanner, participants completed a visual exercise called the Hariri task.
During the task, participants were shown a target image of an angry or fearful face at the top of a screen. They were then asked to select the matching face from two options at the bottom. This specific visual matching exercise is known to reliably stimulate the amygdala.
Brain activity can vary widely from person to person based on age, gender, and head movement during a scan. To account for this natural variation, the research team used a statistical technique called normative modeling. They analyzed scans from over 6,400 healthy participants to establish a baseline of expected amygdala activity. This works much like a pediatric growth chart, which maps out normal ranges for a child’s height and weight.
Next, the researchers evaluated how much the brain activity of nearly 5,000 other participants deviated from this baseline model. They categorized these individuals based on their self-reported mental health histories. The groups included healthy controls, people who had experienced a single depressive episode, those with moderate recurrence involving two to five episodes, and those with a high recurrence of six or more episodes.
For this initial cross-sectional analysis, the team focused strictly on participants who were currently in remission from their depression. The initial results were not statistically significant when the team analyzed the unaltered brain scans. However, once they applied the normative modeling technique to account for age and gender variations, a distinct pattern emerged.
The analysis revealed a measurable association between an individual’s history of depression and their amygdala response. Participants with a high recurrence of depressive episodes showed a heightened amygdala reaction to negative faces compared to healthy controls.
When the researchers looked at individuals actively experiencing a depressive episode, they found no distinct increase in brain activity compared to controls. This suggested that amygdala reactivity represents a long-term biological trait, rather than a temporary state reflecting current mood.
The researchers also wanted to know how medication might influence these brain signals. They noticed that a higher percentage of people in the severe recurrence group were taking antidepressants compared to those with a single past episode. They repeated their cross-sectional analysis, this time removing any participants who were actively taking antidepressant medications.
Excluding medicated individuals strengthened the observed differences between the healthy controls and the recurrent depression groups. The findings indicated that antidepressants might dampen the hyperactive amygdala signal associated with a history of recurrent depression. Because the medication reduced amygdala reactivity, including these participants in the initial data pool slightly masked the true extent of the brain changes.
To see how the brain changes over time, the team conducted a longitudinal analysis. They focused on a smaller group of participants who returned for a second brain scan roughly two and a half years after their initial visit. The researchers categorized these individuals based on whether they had suffered new depressive episodes between the two scans.
For this longitudinal evaluation, the team specifically analyzed people who were in remission during both of their imaging sessions. Participants who began the study with a history of just one depressive episode, but then experienced multiple new episodes before their second scan, exhibited an increase in amygdala reactivity over time.
This brain change supported the kindling theory. It suggests that new depressive episodes incrementally alter how the brain processes negative emotional information, leaving a biological mark even after symptoms fade.
The study relied on a large dataset, but the researchers noted that the effect sizes were relatively small. These findings do not mean that a functional MRI scan can be used to diagnose depression in a clinical setting right now. The results are not robust enough to predict an individual’s exact risk of a relapse based on a single brain scan.
The data collection methods also presented certain limitations. The study depended on participants accurately recalling their own mental health histories, which can introduce memory biases. People might misremember exactly how many distinct depressive episodes they experienced over the course of their lives.
The mental health questionnaires also combined treatments for nerves, anxiety, and depression into a single metric. Because of this, the researchers could not strictly isolate the effects of anxiety disorders from the effects of clinical depression. Future studies will need to track larger groups of symptomatic individuals over extended periods of time to untangle these variables.
Scientists hope that advancing neuroimaging techniques will eventually reduce the normal fluctuations seen in brain scans. Over time, mapping the biology of recurrent depression could help psychiatrists tailor treatments to a patient’s individual history, moving away from the current trial-and-error approach to prescribing medication.
The study, “Normative amygdala fMRI response during emotional processing as a trait of depressive symptoms in the UK Biobank,” was authored by Jerke J. van den Berg, Henricus G. Ruhé, Henk A. Marquering, Liesbeth Reneman, and Matthan W. A. Caan.
-------------------------------------------------
Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org
Unofficial Psychology Today Xitter to toot feed at Psych Today Unofficial Bot @PTUnofficialBot
-------------------------------------------------
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #DepressionResearch #Amygdala #fMRI #Neuroimaging #KindlingTheory #UKBiobank #MentalHealthAwareness #BiomarkersInDepression #LongitudinalStudy #NeuroscienceAdvances
-
DATE: September 11, 2026 at 12:00PM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: Brain scans reveal how recurrent depression leaves a lasting mark on the amygdala
Brain scans reveal that elevated activity in the emotion-processing center is tied to a person’s history of recurrent depression, rather than their current mood. The large study, published in Psychological Medicine, suggests that each major depressive episode may leave a lasting biological mark that increases future vulnerability to the disease.
Major depressive disorder is a common psychiatric condition that affects millions of people worldwide. Currently, psychiatrists diagnose the condition based on clinical interviews and patient history. There are no biological markers, like a blood test or a brain scan, to guide treatment choices.
Functional magnetic resonance imaging, or fMRI, allows researchers to observe the brain in action by tracking blood-oxygen levels. When a brain region becomes active, it requires more oxygen, leading to localized changes in blood flow. The scanner detects these magnetic differences to map out neural activity.
Scientists often use this technology to study the amygdala, an almond-shaped structure deep inside the brain that processes fear and negative emotions. Early brain imaging research suggested that people with clinical depression have hyperactive amygdalae when looking at negative images. But a recent analysis of a massive dataset called the UK Biobank found no association between amygdala activity and current depression symptoms.
Jerke J. van den Berg, a biomedical researcher at the University of Amsterdam, and his colleagues designed a new study to better understand this discrepancy. They suspected that previous research might have missed the broader picture by only looking at a patient’s current mood. The researchers focused on a concept called the kindling theory.
The kindling theory proposes that an initial depressive episode makes the brain more sensitive to stress. After the brain has been sensitized by that first experience, it takes progressively less trauma to trigger a relapse. To test if the amygdala reflects this effect, the research team decided to look at a person’s lifetime history of depression, known as a trait, rather than their current symptoms, known as a state.
The researchers utilized data from the UK Biobank, a long-term population health study. They analyzed functional MRI scans from a subset of participants, totaling more than 11,000 individuals. While inside the scanner, participants completed a visual exercise called the Hariri task.
During the task, participants were shown a target image of an angry or fearful face at the top of a screen. They were then asked to select the matching face from two options at the bottom. This specific visual matching exercise is known to reliably stimulate the amygdala.
Brain activity can vary widely from person to person based on age, gender, and head movement during a scan. To account for this natural variation, the research team used a statistical technique called normative modeling. They analyzed scans from over 6,400 healthy participants to establish a baseline of expected amygdala activity. This works much like a pediatric growth chart, which maps out normal ranges for a child’s height and weight.
Next, the researchers evaluated how much the brain activity of nearly 5,000 other participants deviated from this baseline model. They categorized these individuals based on their self-reported mental health histories. The groups included healthy controls, people who had experienced a single depressive episode, those with moderate recurrence involving two to five episodes, and those with a high recurrence of six or more episodes.
For this initial cross-sectional analysis, the team focused strictly on participants who were currently in remission from their depression. The initial results were not statistically significant when the team analyzed the unaltered brain scans. However, once they applied the normative modeling technique to account for age and gender variations, a distinct pattern emerged.
The analysis revealed a measurable association between an individual’s history of depression and their amygdala response. Participants with a high recurrence of depressive episodes showed a heightened amygdala reaction to negative faces compared to healthy controls.
When the researchers looked at individuals actively experiencing a depressive episode, they found no distinct increase in brain activity compared to controls. This suggested that amygdala reactivity represents a long-term biological trait, rather than a temporary state reflecting current mood.
The researchers also wanted to know how medication might influence these brain signals. They noticed that a higher percentage of people in the severe recurrence group were taking antidepressants compared to those with a single past episode. They repeated their cross-sectional analysis, this time removing any participants who were actively taking antidepressant medications.
Excluding medicated individuals strengthened the observed differences between the healthy controls and the recurrent depression groups. The findings indicated that antidepressants might dampen the hyperactive amygdala signal associated with a history of recurrent depression. Because the medication reduced amygdala reactivity, including these participants in the initial data pool slightly masked the true extent of the brain changes.
To see how the brain changes over time, the team conducted a longitudinal analysis. They focused on a smaller group of participants who returned for a second brain scan roughly two and a half years after their initial visit. The researchers categorized these individuals based on whether they had suffered new depressive episodes between the two scans.
For this longitudinal evaluation, the team specifically analyzed people who were in remission during both of their imaging sessions. Participants who began the study with a history of just one depressive episode, but then experienced multiple new episodes before their second scan, exhibited an increase in amygdala reactivity over time.
This brain change supported the kindling theory. It suggests that new depressive episodes incrementally alter how the brain processes negative emotional information, leaving a biological mark even after symptoms fade.
The study relied on a large dataset, but the researchers noted that the effect sizes were relatively small. These findings do not mean that a functional MRI scan can be used to diagnose depression in a clinical setting right now. The results are not robust enough to predict an individual’s exact risk of a relapse based on a single brain scan.
The data collection methods also presented certain limitations. The study depended on participants accurately recalling their own mental health histories, which can introduce memory biases. People might misremember exactly how many distinct depressive episodes they experienced over the course of their lives.
The mental health questionnaires also combined treatments for nerves, anxiety, and depression into a single metric. Because of this, the researchers could not strictly isolate the effects of anxiety disorders from the effects of clinical depression. Future studies will need to track larger groups of symptomatic individuals over extended periods of time to untangle these variables.
Scientists hope that advancing neuroimaging techniques will eventually reduce the normal fluctuations seen in brain scans. Over time, mapping the biology of recurrent depression could help psychiatrists tailor treatments to a patient’s individual history, moving away from the current trial-and-error approach to prescribing medication.
The study, “Normative amygdala fMRI response during emotional processing as a trait of depressive symptoms in the UK Biobank,” was authored by Jerke J. van den Berg, Henricus G. Ruhé, Henk A. Marquering, Liesbeth Reneman, and Matthan W. A. Caan.
-------------------------------------------------
Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org
Unofficial Psychology Today Xitter to toot feed at Psych Today Unofficial Bot @PTUnofficialBot
-------------------------------------------------
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #DepressionResearch #Amygdala #fMRI #Neuroimaging #KindlingTheory #UKBiobank #MentalHealthAwareness #BiomarkersInDepression #LongitudinalStudy #NeuroscienceAdvances
-
🧠 Could the brain reveal vision loss more accurately than traditional eye tests?
🔗 Using Steady-State Visual Evoked Potentials to Characterize Wide-Ranging Retinopathy Linked to CRB1: Implications for Clinical Trials. Computational and Structural Biotechnology Journal (CSBJ). DOI: https://doi.org/10.34133/csbj.0042
📚 CSBJ - A Science Partner Journal: https://spj.science.org/journal/csbj
#Neuroscience #Ophthalmology #RetinalDiseases #GeneTherapy #EEG #BrainResearch #DigitalHealth #PrecisionMedicine #Neuroimaging
-
#fMRT, macht die #Hirnaktivität sichtbar, doch die Interpretation wird häufig hinterfragt. Auch Forschende der @FAU ermittelten in einer #Studie eine Diskrepanz. Die Autoren sprechen jedoch nicht von Kritik an der Methode, sondern von #Erkenntnisgewinn für die fMRT-Bildgebung, wobei ein zweiter Blick neues offenbart...
Interessiert an mehr? Den #HintergrundArtikel von Larissa Tetsch findet ihr hier: https://www.laborjournal.de/editorials/3465.php
#Laborjournal #LifeSci #Neuroimaging #Neuroscience #Hirnforschung
-
Timely synopsis of emerging #neuroimaging evidence linking #loss anticipation in the #insula to #stimulant use relapse by Jennifer Stewart of the Laureate Institute (thanks for the shout-out! #neuroscience, #addiction)...
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006322323016256