Single Brain Region Links Depression and Anxiety, Heart Disease, and Treatment Sensitivity
upstart writes in with an IRC submission:
Single brain region links depression and anxiety, heart disease, and treatment sensitivity:
A new study, published today in the journal Nature Communications, suggests that sgACC is a crucial region in depression and anxiety, and targeted treatment based on a patient's symptoms could lead to better outcomes.
[...] Research at the University of Cambridge has found that increased activity in sgACC -- a key part of the emotional brain- could underlie increased negative emotion, reduced pleasure and a higher risk of heart disease in depressed and anxious people. More revealing still is the discovery that these symptoms differ in their sensitivity to treatment with an antidepressant, despite being caused by the same change in brain activity.
Using marmosets, a type of non-human primate, the team of researchers infused tiny concentrations of an excitatory drug into sgACC to over-activate it. Marmosets are used because their brains share important similarities with those of humans and it is possible to manipulate brain regions to understand causal effects.
The researchers found that sgACC over-activity increases heart rate, elevates cortisol levels and exaggerates animals' responsiveness to threat, mirroring the stress-related symptoms of depression and anxiety.
"We found that over-activity in sgACC promotes the body's 'fight-or-flight' rather than 'rest-and-digest' response, by activating the cardiovascular system and elevating threat responses," said Dr Laith Alexander, one of the study's first authors from the University of Cambridge's Department of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience.
[...] "Our research shows that the sgACC may sit at the head and the heart of the matter when it comes to symptoms and treatment of depression and anxiety."
Journal Reference:
Laith Alexander, Christian M. Wood, Philip L. R. Gaskin, et al. Over-activation of primate subgenual cingulate cortex enhances the cardiovascular, behavioral and neural responses to threat [open], Nature Communications (DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-19167-0)
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