Good news!
This study seems to confirm that depression also affects motion and vision, which was, I believe, known for a very long time. They call it "a key surprising finding", which it is not!
"Researchers ... analyzed thousands of brain scans collected from a population sample, including people with subclinical symptoms. The results of their analyses ... identified various changes in the brain that appear to be associated with depression, some of which are inconsistent with earlier observations. ...
Consistent with earlier research, the researchers found that depression was linked to a reduction in gray matter in three brain regions: the frontal cortex, anterior cingulate cortex and insula. These areas of the brain are known to play a role in the regulation of emotions, decision-making, motivation and the internal processing of bodily sensations.
"A key surprising finding was that smaller brain regions in motor and visual regions were linked to higher levels of depression," ... "It has been known that reduced brain size in other (e.g., frontal) parts of the brain is linked to depression, but the location of these new results was surprising because we don't usually link symptoms of depression to sensory processing or motor action."
Earlier research had also linked depression to changes in regions in the basal brain, such as the amygdala and hippocampus. ... observed little evidence of this. ...
Toward a better understanding of depression
This study was one of the most detailed and comprehensive explorations of brain changes associated with depression to date. Overall, its findings suggest that depression affects a broad network of brain regions that have been implicated in important mental functions. ..."
"Key points
- Depression’s physical symptoms may have a direct neural explanation.
- A major new study found that motor and visual brain regions shrink in depression, not just frontal regions.
- The hippocampus, long linked to depression, showed no clear changes.
..."
From the abstract:
"Depression has been linked to reduced size of subcortical regions and abnormal functional connectivity in frontal and default mode networks. However, recent meta-analyses have failed to identify significant converging correlates of depression across the literature such that a conclusive mapping of the neuroimaging correlates of depression remains elusive.
We leveraged 23,417 participants across 6 population datasets to comprehensively establish the neuroimaging correlates of depression.
We found reductions in gray matter volume/cortical surface area associated with depression in the frontal cortex, anterior cingulate and insula, confirming previous studies showing the importance of prefrontal and default mode regions in depression.
Our findings demonstrate multiple surprising results, including a lack of depression correlates in subcortical brain regions and significant depression correlates in somatomotor and visual regions.
Overall, these results shed new light on key brain regions involved in the pathophysiology of depression, updating our understanding of the neuroimaging correlates of depression symptoms."
Depression Doesn’t Just Affect the Thinking Brain "A new study of 23,000 people found unexpected brain changes in depression."
The neuroimaging correlates of depression established across six large-scale population datasets (open access)
Fig. 1: Overview of main analysis steps.
Fig 2 Fig. 2: Neuroimaging correlates of depression.
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