Alternatives to Animal Testing, Experimentation and Dissection Articles from All-Creatures.org

Researchers Treat Depression by Reversing Brain Signals Traveling the Wrong Way

From CAARE Citizens for Alternatives to Animal Research
June 2023

The fMRI data showed that in most depressed patients the flow of activity was reversed; the anterior cingulate cortex sent signals to the anterior insula, a pattern that in healthy controls is reversed. And NO animals had to be tortured.

Scientists have conducted countless experiments on animals to study human depression with meager results. In this all-human study at Stanford University, scientists worked with transcranial magnetic stimulation, or powerful magnetic pulses applied to the scalp. These can help alleviate severe depression in people but until now it was unknown how this worked.

Scientists recruited 33 patients diagnosed with treatment-resistant major depressive order, some of which received Stanford neuromodulation therapy (SNT), which uses advanced imaging technologies to direct magnetic pulses to the brain. Others served as controls.

The fMRI data showed that in most depressed patients the flow of activity was reversed; the anterior cingulate cortex sent signals to the anterior insula, a pattern that in healthy controls is reversed.

The SNT treatment reversed the flow of signals within one week, which coincided with alleviation in depression. According to Nolan Miller, MD, one of the study leaders “The fMRI data that allows precision treatment with SNT can be used both as a biomarker for depression and a method of personalized targeting to treat its underlying cause.”

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