Stimulating the brain with magnetic fields has been a promising approach to relieving the symptoms of depression in some patients, although scientists still do not have a complete understanding of the mechanisms underlying.
A study recent research provides some interesting clues: the magnetic stimulation process seems to reverse the abnormal patterns of brain activity associated with depression, directing brain signals in the direction correct.
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The team responsible for the study also suggests that these deviations in neural activity streams may have the potential to be used as a method of diagnosing depression in the future.
How magnetic stimulation works against depression
The therapy known as Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) is a non-invasive, patient-customizable treatment that has already received regulatory approval. A deeper understanding of how TMS works could pave the way for further improvements in this therapeutic approach.
According to psychiatrist and behavioral scientist Anish Mitra of Stanford University in California, a One of the main hypotheses is that TMS could have the ability to modify the flow of neural activity in the brain.
However, Dr. Mitra admits that he was initially skeptical of this idea and decided to test it out for concrete evidence.
In order to investigate this question, the researchers used a special mathematical approach to analyze functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). These images made it possible to identify the exact moments of brain activity and, at the same time, revealed the direction of the neural signals.
Patients diagnosed with treatment-resistant major depressive disorder participated in this study. One group of 10 patients received Stanford Neuromodulation Therapy (SNT), a form of TMS, while another group of 10 patients received a placebo treatment that simulated TNS but without any magnetic stimulation real.
Study result
Brain scans of all participants with depression were compared with scans from 102 individuals who did not have a diagnosis of depression, allowing researchers to observe the differences.
Among these non-depressed individuals, 16 underwent scanning using a different scanner than the other 85 and with different scanning parameters.
One area in particular was noted to stand out on the scans: the anterior insula, which is a part of the brain responsible for receiving biological signals from the body, such as heart rate, and send signals to the cingulate cortex, a region involved in processing emotions.
Interestingly, in three-quarters of people with depression, signals in this brain area went in the opposite direction, going from the cingulate cortex back to the anterior insula. Furthermore, the more severe the level of depression, the more pronounced this reversal of signs.
According to Mitra, the results revealed the importance of the role of the sender and the recipient in neural processing in people with depression. He notes that there seems to be a predetermination of the emotional state, where all sensations are filtered through this perspective. Mood becomes the main influence on brain processing.
This finding is in line with current knowledge about depression, in which normally pleasurable activities associated with the insula above, are replaced by predominant signals from the part of the brain responsible for mood regulation, rather than the other way around.
Most patients with depression experienced a reversal of brain signals in the right direction after just one week of SNT treatment. These results corroborate previous studies that highlight the potential of this specific treatment.
The permanence of correction of brain signals is not yet known, and the research team is interested in testing a larger sample of individuals.
This finding, despite being new, offers significant insight into how depression affects cerebral connectivity, thanks to the detailed analysis of the scans that provided more information than that never.
This certainly paves the way for a deeper understanding of the underlying mechanisms of depression and possible therapeutic approaches.
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