People with depression may have key brain difference

By analyzing people's brains over an extended period rather than at a single time point, the researchers have new insights into the neurological underpinnings of the mental health disorder, with new potential targets for effective treatment.
"Depression is an episodic condition, meaning symptoms come and go over time," Charles Lynch, an associate professor of neuroscience at Weill Cornell Medicine and one of the study's co-authors, told Newsweek. "However, most brain imaging studies to date acquire a single brain scan at one point in time.
In their new study, published in the journal Nature, Lynch, Liston and their colleagues at Cornell used advanced neuroimaging techniques to study the brains of 141 individuals with a diagnosis of major depression and compared them to scans from 37 healthy control subjects. What they found was an unexpected enlargement in a group of brain regions, collectively known as the frontostriatal salience network, in those who suffered from depression.