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How the brain changes during depression treatment -- ScienceDaily
The team found that by stimulating the dorsolateral pre-frontal cortex, several other regions of the brain were also activated. These other regions are involved in multiple functions -- from managing emotional responses to memory and motor control.
The participants then underwent another four weeks of rTMS treatment and the team assessed whether the activated regions were associated with patients having fewer symptoms of depression when their treatment ended.
"We found that regions of the brain that were activated during the concurrent rTMS-fMRI were significantly related to good outcomes," says Dr. Vila-Rodriguez.
With this new map of how rTMS stimulates different areas of the brain, Dr. Villa Rodriguez hopes the findings could be used to determine how well a patient is responding to rTMS treatments.
Multiple brain regions moderate and link depressive mood and pain -- ScienceDaily
"We were very surprised about the expansive roles of these regions," said Zeidan. "Brain regions involved in facilitating pain were also associated with lower pain and depression. Brain regions involved in regulating pain where also associated with increasing depression. Perhaps it's not surprising after seeing the results. Why shouldn't specific aspects of the brain perform multiple roles?"
ADHD drug Ritalin has no effect on primate prefrontal cortex -- ScienceDaily
Julio Martinez-Trujillo and colleagues refute their hypothesis the caudal prefrontal cortex -- a brain region critical for attention -- is Ritalin's main site of action in the brain. To arrive at this conclusion, the researchers recorded large populations of neurons in this brain region as two male macaque monkeys performed a demanding visual attention task. The team did not observe any differences in neuronal activity after administration of the drug compared to a placebo, even at doses that improved the monkeys' performance on the task.
Regret is a gambler's curse, neuroscientists say: After placing a bet, gamblers' thought processes focus on regret about past bets -- ScienceDaily
"Right after making a choice and right before finding out about the outcome, the brain is replaying and revisiting nearly every feature of what happened during the previous decision," said senior author Ming Hsu, an associate professor in the Haas School of Business and Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute at UC Berkeley. "Instead of 'I just gambled but maybe I shouldn't have,' it is, 'Last round I gambled and that was a really good choice.' Or, 'I played it safe last time but should have gone for it.'"
Brain connectivity study helps explain the neural link between depression and poor sleep quality
The researchers examined data from 1,017 participants who were included in the March 2017 public data release from the Human Connectome Project. They found that both poor sleep quality and depressive symptoms were associated with neural connectivities involving the lateral orbitofrontal cortex, the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, the cingulate cortex, and the precuneus.
“Our analysis shows that the functional connections between the areas of the brain associated with short-term memory, the self, and negative emotions are increased in both poor sleep and depressive participants. So people with poor sleep or depression may focus too much on the negative things and dwell on bad thoughts, which leads to a poor quality of sleep,” Feng told PsyPost.
Neural inflammation plays critical role in stress-induced depression -- ScienceDaily
These results show that repeated social defeat stress activates microglia in the medial prefrontal cortex via the innate immune receptors TLR2/4. This triggers the expression of inflammation-related cytokines IL-1? and TNF?, leading to the atrophy and impaired response of neurons in the medial prefrontal cortex, and causing depressive behavior.
Professor Furuyashiki says: "These findings demonstrate the importance of neural inflammation caused by the innate immune system for stress-induced depression. This could lead to the development of new antidepressant medication targeting innate immune molecules."
Attention deficit disorders could stem from impaired brain coordination: Researchers uncover link absent between brain regions in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, schizophrenia -- ScienceDaily
When the researchers attached probes to the mice to measure brain activity, they found mice without ErbB4 had brain regions that were acting independently, rather than together in synchrony. In particular, the researchers studied the prefrontal cortex -- normally associated with decision-making -- and the hippocampus -- a region that supports memory. These two regions coordinate for a variety of brain tasks, including memory and attention. "We found top-down attention, previously thought to be controlled by the prefrontal cortex, also involves the hippocampus in a manner where the two regions are highly synchronized when attention is high," says Mei. "Our findings give importance to synchrony between the prefrontal cortex and hippocampus in top-down attention and open up the possibility that attention deficit disorders, like ADHD, might involve impairments in the synchrony between these two regions."
According to the new study, ErbB4 coordinates a cascade of brain signals that "bridge" the two regions. ErbB4 itself encodes a receptor found on the surface of brain cells. The study found that when a protein (neuregulin-1) attaches to the ErbB4 receptor, it triggers a chain reaction that ultimately determines neurotransmitter levels in the prefrontal cortex and hippocampus. Without ErbB4, neurotransmitter levels go awry. The researchers discovered mice lacking ErbB4 have low levels of a particular neurotransmitter -- GABA, or gamma-aminobutyric acid -- in their brain. Low GABA levels can lead to impaired top-down attention in the prefrontal cortex, and impairs how the prefrontal cortex can efficiently coordinate with the hippocampus. The researchers concluded that ErbB4 helps link the two brain regions to maintain attention.
Neuroscientists identify brain circuit necessary for memory formation: New findings challenge standard model of memory consolidation -- ScienceDaily
The researchers labeled memory cells in three parts of the brain: the hippocampus, the prefrontal cortex, and the basolateral amygdala, which stores memories' emotional associations.
Just one day after the fear-conditioning event, the researchers found that memories of the event were being stored in engram cells in both the hippocampus and the prefrontal cortex. However, the engram cells in the prefrontal cortex were "silent" -- they could stimulate freezing behavior when artificially activated by light, but they did not fire during natural memory recall.
"Already the prefrontal cortex contained the specific memory information," Kitamura says. "This is contrary to the standard theory of memory consolidation, which says that you gradually transfer the memories. The memory is already there."
Over the next two weeks, the silent memory cells in the prefrontal cortex gradually matured, as reflected by changes in their anatomy and physiological activity, until the cells became necessary for the animals to naturally recall the event. By the end of the same period, the hippocampal engram cells became silent and were no longer needed for natural recall. However, traces of the memory remained: Reactivating those cells with light still prompted the animals to freeze.
In the basolateral amygdala, once memories were formed, the engram cells remained unchanged throughout the course of the experiment. Those cells, which are necessary to evoke the emotions linked with particular memories, communicate with engram cells in both the hippocampus and the prefrontal cortex.
