{"id":141745,"date":"2024-09-25T13:36:05","date_gmt":"2024-09-25T13:36:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/09\/25\/a-brain-network-linked-to-attention-is-larger-in-people-with-depression\/"},"modified":"2024-09-25T13:36:05","modified_gmt":"2024-09-25T13:36:05","slug":"a-brain-network-linked-to-attention-is-larger-in-people-with-depression","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/09\/25\/a-brain-network-linked-to-attention-is-larger-in-people-with-depression\/","title":{"rendered":"A brain network linked to attention is larger in people with depression"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><\/div> \r\n<br><div style=\"clear:both\">\n<style><![CDATA[\n.subscribe-cta {\n  color: black;\n  margin-top: 0px;\n  background-color: #EDD695;\n  background-size: cover;\n  padding: 20px;\n  border: 1px solid black;\n  border-top: 5px solid black;\n  clear: both;\n}\n\n.centered {\n  text-align:center;\n  margin:auto;\n}\n\n]]><\/style>\n<!-- \/wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:group {\"className\":\"subscribe-cta\"} -->\n<div id=\"subscribeConversion\" class=\"wp-block-group subscribe-cta\"><!-- wp:heading {\"textAlign\":\"center\",\"style\":{\"typography\":{\"fontSize\":\"2em\"}}} -->\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-align-center\" style=\"font-size:2em\">Extreme Climate Survey<\/h2>\n<!-- \/wp:heading -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph {\"align\":\"center\",\"style\":{\"typography\":{\"fontSize\":\"1.1em\"}}} -->\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\" style=\"font-size:1.1em\"><strong><em>Science News <\/em>is collecting reader questions about how to navigate our planet&#8217;s changing climate.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\" style=\"font-size:1.1em\">What do you want to know about extreme heat and how it can lead to extreme weather events?<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:spacer {\"height\":\"20px\"} -->\n\n<!-- \/wp:spacer -->\n\n<!-- wp:buttons {\"className\":\"centered\",\"layout\":{\"type\":\"flex\",\"justifyContent\":\"center\"}} -->\n\n<!-- \/wp:buttons --><\/div>\n<!-- \/wp:group -->\n\n\n<p>Lynch and his team hoped to uncover the driving forces behind mood changes in depression by mapping brain networks over time. Existing functional MRI datasets allowed the team to look at the activity, across multiple days, of more than a hundred people\u2019s brains, including those with and without depression. The dataset also included patients\u2019 rating scales of their depression symptoms at the time of each scan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The team identified the networks of brain areas with the most coordinated activity and found that the salience network \u2014 known for identifying relevant stimuli and guiding attention \u2014 was nearly two times larger in people with depression. The network also directs the activity of two other networks; one that controls self-focused thinking and another that facilitates working memory during goal-directed tasks. Previous work hinted that the salience network may be involved in depression, but the findings were unclear.\u00a0The new study showed that though the overall shape of the network was similar across both groups, its borders extended farther outward in patients with depression.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><span class=\"caption wp-caption-3143788\">In fMRI images, such as those the brain models shown here are based on, the salience network (shown in black) is twice as large in people with depression (right) than in those without (left).<\/span><span class=\"credit wp-credit-3143788\">C. Lynch et al.\/Nature 2024<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Though the boundaries of the salience network remained stable over time and across various moods, some changes in connectivity between specific nodes of the network corresponded with worsening symptoms. By analyzing network changes in two patients who were scanned over many months, the team found that connectivity between the nucleus accumbens, which is involved in reward-seeking, and the anterior cingulate, which plays a part in decision-making, weakened when patients reported experiencing less joy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Two individuals with bipolar II disorder also had expanded salience networks, but those with autism or obsessive-compulsive disorder did not. \u201cThe specificity of salience network expansion to depression will thus be a very intriguing question to explore in future studies using transdiagnostic samples,\u201d says Lucina Uddin, a neuroscientist at UCLA who was not involved in the study.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To investigate whether a large salience network could precede depression altogether, the team analyzed a neuroimaging dataset of adolescents over time. They focused on 57 children who did not have depressive symptoms when they were scanned between the ages of 10 and 12 years old, but developed symptoms within a couple years. These children had significantly larger salience networks than those who did not develop depression, and the size of the network stayed stable over time in both groups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A larger salience network is not the result of depression; it precedes depression, the results suggest. The authors believe the enlarged network may even be related to early life stressors or genetics, but more research needs to be done before anyone can say for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A better understanding of the neural components driving depression could lead the way for more precise therapeutic interventions, which would be especially helpful given the unreliable effectiveness of current medications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe think there is an opportunity to incorporate information about how functional brain networks are organized spatially in individuals with depression to inform how we administer brain stimulation therapies,\u201d Lynch says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\t\t\t<\/div>\r\n<br>\r\n<br><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencenews.org\/article\/brain-network-larger-depression\">Source link <\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Extreme Climate Survey Science News is collecting reader questions about how to navigate our planet&#8217;s changing climate. What do you want to know about extreme heat and how it can lead to extreme weather events? Lynch and his team hoped to uncover the driving forces behind mood changes in depression by mapping brain networks over [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":141746,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.sciencenews.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/091324_nb_depression_inline.jpg?resize=680%2C267&ssl=1","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[606],"tags":[4086,1920,8288,22702,1109,2537,124],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141745"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=141745"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141745\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":141747,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141745\/revisions\/141747"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/141746"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=141745"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=141745"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=141745"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}