A new study suggests there is a link to increased communications between two areas of the brain and feelings of depression or anxiety on Thursday, according to National Public Radio.
The study was published in the journal Cell by a team of researchers at the University of California San Francisco after the scientists observed electrical conversations participants had in their brain.
The study found the 21 participants were feeling down when they had the most conversation between brain cells in two specific regions of the brain which are involved with memory and emotion.
It's unclear if this increase in brain communication is a cause or an effect of a bad mood, but the findings showed them where in the brain that action is.
"For many patients, it is very important to know that when they are feeling depressed, it is due to something measurable and concrete within their brain," said co-senior study author Dr. Vikaas Sohal, a psychiatrist at the University of California, San Francisco. "For some patients, this can provide important validation and remove stigma, empowering them to seek appropriate treatment."
Dr. Sohal said there was "one network that over and over would tell us whether they were feeling happy or sad."
The new findings could lead to a deeper understanding of mood disorders or finding new ways of treating them.
Previous studies found that sadness and other emotions involve the amygdala, a mass which is found on each side of the brain, while the hippocampus area of the brain, which is associated with memory, can also play a role in emotion.
But Dr. Sohal said they were curious about what those areas of the brain do when someone's mood changes.
The team studies 221 people who were waiting in the hospital for brain surgery procedures related to severe epilepsy, but before the surgery doctors inserted small wires into the brain to monitor its electrical activity for a week.
The researchers hoped those records could show which areas of the brain were communicating to each other depending on what activity, ranging from watching tv, talking to family, or waiting before a procedure when one is likely to be anxious.
The patients also logged their moods so the researchers could see if what they recorded coincided with what the device was able to capture.
Thirteen out of the 21 patients shared the same network in a surprising result, according to Dr. Sohal.
But he also said that makes sense for areas of the brain related to memory and emotion having a link to depression.
"Maybe you're feeling down and so you start remembering times in your life when bad things have happened, or you are starting to remember those experiences and that is what is making you feel down," he says.
Dr. Sohal said even though the study couldn't confirm it's findings, the results could offer comfort to some people just to know "there's something happening in your brain when you're feeling down."
-WN.com, Maureen Foody