Depression is a mental
disorder whose symptoms vary widely within each individual. Each person with
depression expresses the symptoms differently or express entirely different
symptoms from one another. Dr. Rebecca Silton from Loyola University Chicago,
introduced my neuroscience class about her research that looks into anhedonia,
a common symptom of depression. Anhedonia is the “reduction of in ability to
experience pleasure in daily life experiences” (Meehl, 1962). More specifically
her research focused on the relationship between low positive affect of
anhedonia and depression. Her findings showed that there is a positive
correlation between low positive affect and depression, but this is also associated
with low activity in the left prefrontal cortex due to high alpha in the
prefrontal cortex with those that have remitted depression. Although the causes
of this phenomena are not yet understood, it is important to note this finding
because it can potentially lead to new ways of treating depression. During Dr.
Silton’s lecture, she referenced a TED talk video where Andrew Solomon talked
about his experience with depression. Andrew Solomon said, “The opposite of
depression is not happiness, but vitality” which demonstrates how anhedonia’s
positive affect is very prevalent in depression like how Dr. Silton suggests.
Researchers in
Binghamton University were interested in studying the differences between
people who are in remission for depression and people with no history of
depression. In their study they showed 160 women, 60 who have had depression,
pictures of faces that expressed either a neutral, sad, happy, or angry
expression. What they found was that the women with a history of depression
were more likely to be drawn to angry facial expressions compared to the women
with no history of depression, and these women were also at a greater risk to
develop depression again. They found no differences between the two groups of
women and the attention paid to sad or happy faces. This can be related back to
the fact that low positive affect is a key symptom in depression. Although
other characteristics of depression are important, anhedonia seems to be a
great interest in Dr. Silton’s study and that conducted by researchers in
Binghamton University.
Dr. Silton and the
researchers of Binghamton University believe that the way people see the world
around them influences their mental health, whether they have depression or
not. Understanding low positive affect in depression can help treat depression.
One cannot just simply be happy, they should also have vitality. One thing I
took away from Dr. Silton’s lecture was that we should try to smile more often
or have a positive attitude in order to uplift ourselves. This method, however,
may not be easy for those suffering from depression as we saw from Binghamton’s
University research. Which is why it is important to understand the effects of
low positive affect in depression.
References
Silton, L. R.,
Polnaszek, K. L., Dickson, A. D, Miller, A. G., Heller, W. Low positive affect
is associated with reduced prefrontal cortical activity in remitted depression.
Psychophysiology, 1-31.
Association for
Psychological Science. “Attention to angry faces may predict future depression”.
16 June 2015. < http://www.psychologicalscience.org/index.php/news/releases/attention-to-angry-faces-may-predict-future-depression.html>
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