Nurture and train the brain to sustain happiness

A revealing study was just published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (USA) which demonstrated that a key difference between individuals suffering from depression and those who are not is the ability of their brains to sustain the feeling of happiness. Subjects suffering from major depressive disorder (MDD)  felt positive emotion briefly but connections between their fronto-striatal cortex and an area of the brain called the nucleus accumbens lacked the 'strength' to maintain it. The authors conclude: "These findings support the hypothesis that anhedonia in depressed patients reflects the inability to sustain engagement of structures involved in positive affect and reward." (Anhedonia = the absence of or inability to experience pleasure.) This relates interestingly to an earlier paper published in the same journal which disclosed that reduced function and later shrinkage of a key brain area called the hippocampus correlated closely with repeated episodes of depression, even in young people. The authors state: "Curve-fitting analysis revealed a significant logarithmic association between illness duration and hippocampal volume," and go on to conclude, "...these data confirm that relatively young adults with multiple episodes of depression have bilateral HC volume reductions." (HC = hippocampal). Take home message: brain health needs to be protected from damage (inflammation and chemical or physical trauma) and maintained (as with muscular health) with adequate oxygen, blood sugar, nutrients critical to function, and the right kind of stimulation (exercise).