Depression Resilience and Neural Connectivity

Peter ForsterBasic Science, Major Depression, Psychobiology Leave a Comment

Much has been written about risk factors for depression but we know less about depression resilience factors. Why do some people at high risk develop depression, while others do not. A study conducted at Stanford by Adina S. Fischer, MD PhD, and colleagues, suggests that increased regulation of limbic areas (the parts of the brain that are most directly involved in …

Norepinephrine dopamine and depression

Peter ForsterBasic Science, Major Depression, Psychobiology, Treatments of Depression

In an elegant set of studies published in February 2016 in Nature Neuroscience the team of Bruno Giros, a researcher at the Douglas Mental Health University Institute and Professor of Psychiatry at McGill University, reports the first-ever connection between noradrenergic neurons and vulnerability to depression. The study involved research using probably the most well developed animal model for depression – chronic or …

Body Mindfulness and Peak Performance

Peter ForsterPhysical Conditions and Health, Psychobiology, Self Care

Research from the UCSD Center for Mindfulness suggests that what distinguishes people who are resilient in the face of physical challenges from others may be a natural capacity for the kind of self-awareness that mindfulness teaches, in other words, that body mindfulness and peak performance may be inextricably linked. Psychologist Lori Haase, and her colleagues at UCSD, have conducted a series of …