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Scientists Iidentify tiny area of the brain linked to anxiety about the future (26 August 2014)

Date: 26/08/2014
Duncan Lewis, Legal News Solicitors, Scientists Iidentify tiny area of the brain linked to anxiety about the future

Scientists have identified a tiny area of the brain linked to anxiety about the future – which could help devise treatments for those suffering from associated mental health conditions.

Anxiety and fear of the future can develop into serious mental health conditions, such as mild to moderate or chronic depression.

A team from University College London investigated a pea-size area of the brain called the habenula.

Together with colleagues at the University of Cambridge in the UK – as well as teams at the Japanese National Institute for Information and Communications Technology and Switzerland’s Université de Lausanne – the researchers showed 23 volunteers a series of seven abstract images which were associated with the Pavlovian responses of either winning £1 or losing £1, receiving an electric shock or nothing happening as they viewed the images.

Using fMRI scanning techniques – which measure brain activity by studying blood flow to the brain – the team found that volunteers were quick to learn which images were associated with an electric shock and responded fearfully.

This so-called conditioning response involved feelings of pessimism and dread, as well as fear.

Activity in the area of the brain where the habenula is located also increased to coincide with the conditioning response when the volunteers reacted to the thought of seeing an image associated with electric shock.

The researchers say this suggests the habenula is linked to a warning system in the brain, which alerts individuals to impending dangers or enables individuals to learn from past mistakes – but which can also create unjustified feelings of foreboding if over-stimulated.

The team says that individuals who suffer from anxiety or depression – or who experience feelings of foreboding they are unable to explain – may suffer from an over-active habenula and this in turn could lead to more serious mental health conditions such as anxiety, negative thinking or depression.

“The habenula encodes the dynamically changing negative motivational value of stimuli that predict primary punishments,” the researchers said.

The team said that further research would be needed to study activity in the habenula area of the brain in mental health patients suffering conditions such as depression and anxiety.

The study is funded by the Medical Research Council and is published online in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA (PNAS.

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Duncan Lewis mental health solicitors are the UK’s largest provider of Legal Aid mental health services and can advise mental health patients on access to local services and detention under the Mental Health Act.

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For expert legal advice on mental health law, contact the Duncan Lewis Mental Health Solicitors Helpline on 0203 114 1124.

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