Brain Network Significantly Larger in People with Depression, Even in Childhood

Brain Network Significantly Larger

in People with Depression, Even in Childhood

The frontostriatal salience network is involved in reward processing and attention to stimuli. Self-esteem and feelings of self worth are tied to connectivity of the neurons in this region. It is also associated with affective and emotional processing and behavior.

Using a novel brain-mapping technique involving functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) use, researchers found that this area was almost twice as large in those with depression, compared with non-depressed control patients.

These changes were not affected by mood changes, were unaffected by time and can be found in children before the onset of depression symptoms. This suggests that an enlarged frontostriatal region may serve as an anatomical marker of depression risk.

Ketamine infusion therapy has been found by researchers to be associated with increased neuronal activity in this same region.