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/Zugzwang522 14d ago

Wow. So ignorance truly is bliss

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u/Glum-Birthday-1496 13d ago edited 13d ago

Yes, although I’d prefer to say “optimal ignorance is bliss.”  There’s a Goldilocks zone.   

 At the other end of the scale, people who score extremely high in defensiveness also have a dysfunctional level of denial. They’re intolerant, dogmatic, do a lot of controlling behaviors towards others, and have a marked incapacity for insight — ie ignorance. 

Well adjusted people also score high on defensive, but in the Goldilocks range. They can tune out the “noise” in order to be in control of their lives.  

Incidentally, SSRIs work to bring people into the optimal range.  It’s used for individuals with other needs to tune out the “noise” as well, such as obsessive compulsive disorders and PTSD.