Topic
Psychiatric neuroimaging research, explained
10 open-access psychiatric neuroimaging studies, each with a flashcard deck and a quiz.
- Can brain scans divide depression into distinct biological types?
A rigorous re-analysis shows that previously proposed biological subtypes of depression may be statistical artifacts of overfitting rather than true, distinct categories.
- How Mindfulness Training Changes Brain Dynamics in Anxiety Patients
Mindfulness training reduces anxiety by strengthening the active communication between prefrontal brain networks and the amygdala.
- How do antidepressants affect the resting brain in healthy people?
Short-term use of antidepressant medications decreases communication between deeper emotional brain structures and the prefrontal cortex during rest.
- How the brain's perspective-taking network links to social loss
People with schizophrenia show lower activity in a key brain region during perspective-taking, and this reduction explains why social anhedonia leads to worse everyday social functioning.
- Is the resting brain network wired differently in problem gamblers?
Gamblers' whole-brain networks looked normal overall, but medial frontal regions tied to reward and self-control were organised differently, and reward-circuit connections were stronger.
- How depression alters brain wave synchronization during attention.
People with depression show weakened low-frequency brain connections but hyperactive high-frequency connections when focusing on a target, suggesting their brains work harder to compensate for processing deficits.
- Do probiotics improve vagal function in depression?
In an RCT of 43 depressed patients and 43 controls, three months of a multi-species probiotic lowered morning heart rate and raised morning RMSSD/lnHF in depression versus placebo, with more Akkermansia and better sleep metrics.
- How depression and anxiety change emotional brain control
People with major depression show reduced accuracy and decreased activity in brain networks responsible for self-control during negative emotional contexts, whereas those with generalized anxiety do not.
- Does reward system damage explain depression after a stroke?
Depression after a stroke is linked to microstructural changes and increased fluid in the brain's reward pathway rather than the physical location of the stroke's initial damage.
- How Brains with Depression and Anxiety Handle Social Comparison
People with depression and social anxiety show heightened default mode network activation during upward social comparison, reflecting greater internal distress and rumination.