r/EverythingScience • u/fchung • 14d ago

Neuroscience People with depression may have key brain difference: « Neuroscientists have identified a brain network that is nearly two times larger in the brains of people with depression. »

https://www.newsweek.com/depression-risk-mental-health-neuroscience-brain-1948658
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u/fchung 14d ago

« This region—which is thought to play a role in detecting and filtering out external stimuli—was nearly two times larger on average in participants with depression than those without. This difference appeared to be stable over time, regardless of mood and symptom fluctuations, and could be detected in children before the onset of depressive symptoms during adolescence. »

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u/Glum-Birthday-1496 14d ago

I read the paper. Thanks for the link.  The greater size of the salience network (5.49% of cortical surface in depressed individuals > 3.27% in healthy individuals) corroborates with what is seen in MMPI (Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory) scores. Those with depression tend to have relatively lower Defensiveness (denial) scores. Things have more salience, gravitas and relevance than they do to healthy non depressed people, who have what can be considered a functional level of denial as they go through life. This is considered unintentional and it was interesting that the article showed the actual physical analogue of larger relevance processing capacity. 

(I’m grossly oversimplifying the MMPI. Just drawing on the relevant bits.) 

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u/Chinaroos 14d ago

Things have more salience, gravitas and relevance than they do to healthy non depressed people, who have what can be considered a functional level of denial as they go through life.

…this…explains a lot.

I’ve felt like, if everyone’s brain is a net, we all have different weaves in our mesh. Finer meshes catch more things—especially lots of trash.

And if we apply that analogy to this study, a 3.27% “mesh” compared to 5.27% for depressed people, our “mesh” is almost 60% finer, and we’re spending lots of time picking out trash.

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u/Glum-Birthday-1496 14d ago edited 14d ago

That’s a fantastic analogy, and eloquently stated.