Researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) have shown that people with depression have more connections throughout the brain. In fact, the main difference from a depressed brain is that it is hyper-connected , the authors reveal in the journal PLoS One . The finding would explain why clinical depression tends to present with anxiety, lack of attention and concentration, memory problems and sleep disorders .
According to Andrew Leuchter, a researcher at the UCLA Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior and co-author of a study involving 121 adults with severe depression, "the healthy brain must be able to synchronize, first, and then desynchronize, different areas to react before what happens to us, regulate the mood, learn and solve problems ". The problem with the depressed brain , Leuchter adds, is that it retains its ability to form connections but is unable to "turn them off ."
In patients, the area of the brain that showed the most abnormal connections was the prefrontal cortex, which involves regulating mood, making decisions and solving problem situations. "When the brain loses its ability to control its own connections, it is unable to adapt to changes," sums up Leuchter.
