Study: Depression patients have brain network twice as large as normal

A new study by scientists has discovered a brain network that appears to be twice as large as normal in most people with depression.

"The more we know about how depression affects the brain, the better we can prevent and treat it," Science Alert noted.

The researchers involved in the study, led by a team from Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City, believe the discovery could help develop future treatments — perhaps ones that target this specific brain network.

"The network expands to nearly double its size in most individuals with depression, and this effect was evident in several cases," the researchers explained.

This suggests that the frontostriatal salience network can expand into an area that is normally within the domain of other functional networks. Such transformations have previously been found to be heritable.

The research is notable for its use of fine-scale functional mapping, a relatively new approach that gives researchers a more detailed look at each brain and how it is laid out.

An initial analysis of brain scans from 57 depressed individuals, with an average age of 41, compared with 37 healthy individuals, showed an expansion of the frontostriatal salience network. These findings were then supported by comparisons with larger data sets.

Further tests on a smaller group over a year and a half, as well as brain imaging data from 114 children collected before and after a diagnosis of depression, showed similar results.

"The expansion of the salience network was stable over time, was not affected by mood state, and could be detected in children before the onset of depression later in adolescence," the researchers said.

The study noted that the expansion of the frontostriatal salience network was significant in children before a diagnosis of depression, suggesting that it is a potential risk factor and contributor to depression, rather than something that occurs because of it.

The researchers also stress that there is a need to collect and analyze data from larger, more diverse groups of individuals, over longer periods of time, to see the association between this specific brain network and depression.

Source: American Press