A study published today provides surprising new insight into what happens in depressed brains.
In people with depression, brain regions appear to be overly connected to one another, says the study, which is being published by UCLA’s Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior. In turn, this excessive connectivity reduces the flexibility the brain needs to function properly.
“Depression is a whole brain disease,” says Dr. Andrew Leuchter, the Semel Institute neuroscientist who led the team that produced the study. “It’s not something that affects just one brain region, but that the entire organ doesn’t appear to be functioning very well.”
Hyperconnectivity may be nothing more than the reality that severe depression tends to be hyper stable. In fact, that is the biggest problem with severe depression. A state of depression can be tolerated; it's the relentless and unending nature of it that has to be managed.