What Happens to Our Brains When We Get Depressed?

What Happens to Our Brains When We Get Depressed?

What Happens to Our Brains When We Get Depressed? 150 150 Thomas Prevot

The human brain, in all its complexity, is nearly impossible to model. Neuroscientists are trying anyway.

Illustration by Jeremy Leung

The WALRUS, Canadian general-interest magazine published a new piece on May 19th, 2021 about CAMH scientists working towards clarifying the impact of depression on our brain.

The piece by writer Simon Lewsen, and beautifully illustrated by Jeremy Leung, describes the work of Dr. Sean Hill, Director of the Krembil Centre for Neuroinformatics of CAMH, of Dr. Etienne Sibille, Chair of the Campbell Family Mental Health Research Institute of CAMH.

A depressive brain is a noisy one. What if scientists could locate the neurons causing the problem?

Depression affects more than 260 million people around the world, but we barely understand it. We know that the balance between the prefrontal cortex (at the front of the brain) and the anterior cingulate cortex (tucked just behind it) plays some role in regulating mood, as does the chemical serotonin. But what actually causes depression? Is there a tiny but important area of the brain that researchers should focus on? And does there even exist a singular disorder called depression, or is the label a catch-all denoting a bunch of distinct disorders with similar symptoms but different brain mechanisms?.

Find the article on The WALRUS website to learn more about depression, its cause, its consequences, and how Canadian scientists improve our understanding of it and work towards the development of novel therapeutic options.