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Science

Neuroscientists Have Created a Mood Decoder That Can Measure Depression (technologyreview.com) 56

Posted by msmash from the moving-forward dept.
An anonymous reader shares a report: Deep brain stimulation is already used to treat severe cases of epilepsy and a few movement disorders such as Parkinson's. But depression is more complicated -- partly because we still don't fully understand what's going on in the brain when it occurs. "Depression is a complex illness," says Patricio Riva Posse, a neurologist at the Emory School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia, who was not involved in the trial. "It's not like trying to correct one tremor -- there's a whole universe of symptoms." These include low mood, suicidality, inability to experience pleasure, and changes in motivation, sleep, and appetite.

Doctors have been using electricity to treat brain disorders -- including depression -- for decades, and some studies have found that electrodes placed deep inside the brain can jolt some people out of their symptoms. But results vary. Neuroscientists hope that by getting a better idea of what's happening inside the brains of people with symptoms like John's, they can make the treatment more effective. John is one of five people who have volunteered to have their brains probed as part of a clinical trial. At the start of 2020, he had a total of 14 electrodes implanted across his brain. For nine days, he stayed in a hospital with protruding cables wrapped around his head, while neuroscientists monitored how his brain activity correlated with his mood.

The researchers behind the trial say they have developed a "mood decoder" -- a way of being able to work out how someone is feeling just by looking at brain activity. Using the decoder, the scientists hope to be able to measure how severe a person's depression is, and target more precisely where the electrodes are placed to optimize the effect on the patient's mood. So far, they have analyzed the results of three volunteers. What they have found is extremely promising, says Sameer Sheth, a neurosurgeon based at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, who is leading the trial. Not only have he and his colleagues been able to link volunteers' specific brain activity with their mood, but they have also found a way to stimulate a positive mood. "This is the first demonstration of successful and consistent mood decoding of humans in these brain regions," says Sheth. His colleague Jiayang Xiao presented the findings at the Society for Neuroscience's annual meeting in San Diego in November.
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Neuroscientists Have Created a Mood Decoder That Can Measure Depression More

Neuroscientists Have Created a Mood Decoder That Can Measure Depression

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  • Stumbling (Score:4, Insightful)

    by drinkypoo ( 153816 ) <drink@hyperlogos.org> on Tuesday December 27, 2022 @08:50AM (#63160996) Homepage Journal

    Neuroscientists hope that by getting a better idea of what's happening inside the brains of people with symptoms like John's, they can make the treatment more effective.

    Since nobody has ever identified a physiological cause for depression, we are reduced to throwing drugs at the brain and seeing what effects they have — nobody is trying to treat a root cause, just symptoms forever and ever.

    • Neuroscientists hope that by getting a better idea of what's happening inside the brains of people with symptoms like John's, they can make the treatment more effective.

      Since nobody has ever identified a physiological cause for depression, we are reduced to throwing drugs at the brain and seeing what effects they have — nobody is trying to treat a root cause, just symptoms forever and ever.

      It would be great if we could identify a root cause, but we need to try some things in the interim.

      You're hella correct about throwing stuff at it. We're creating a weird psych salad of disorders, and even mainstreaming antipsychotics into the depression game these days. Drugs like Latuda or Rexalti for Bipolar II are all over Television.

      It isn't that these problems don't exist. Depression is real, Bipolar I and II are real. Drug companies just have a pecuniary interest in convincing people they need t

    • To be fair, we have found that an imbalance of neurotransmitters is the cause of depression. We have also found that mood itself can influence the release of neurotransmitters (feedback). However, to discover the original cause of why some brains are releasing neurotransmitters in differing amounts may require understanding how the lower brain functions. Effectively, the question is why the lower brain is behaving as it does and what can be done to change it.

      Frankly, our understanding of brain structures a

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Shimbo ( 100005 )

        To be fair, we have found that an imbalance of neurotransmitters is the cause of depression.

        Recent research has rejected that theory. Time will tell whether it's a landmark paper in the field or not. I'm not qualified to judge more than it's a serious paper.

        • The observation, "just because you're paranoid does not mean they re not out to get you" has a corollary, "just because you're depressed does not mean the world doesn't totally suck."

    • nobody is trying to treat a root cause, just symptoms forever and ever.

      It probably never occurred to an astute observer such as yourself that maybe there is no one root cause for depression. Just like there is no one root cause for cancer. That maybe, just perhaps, the people who have spent decades, possibly a lifetime, studying depression in all its forms, have been looking for a root cause and determined there isn't any. Thus, using drugs to get the anticipated results is what is done.

      But let us know w

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by dvice ( 6309704 )

        I think that root cause for depression is that you are with people who don't approve you. This explains:
        - Why being with bullies at school or work is depressing.
        - How someone can live alone and not be depressed.
        - Why family/friends etc. decrease the risk of depression.

        You can be sad if your kid or pet dies, but you don't usually get depressed from it, unless you are rejected by people because of that.

        Then again, my knowledge of depression is quite limited.

      • nobody is trying to treat a root cause, just symptoms forever and ever.

        It probably never occurred to an astute observer such as yourself that maybe there is no one root cause for depression.

        The implication is that I'm not an astute observer, except I obviously noticed something of importance here that you're trying to downplay. Nobody's identified a combination of biological causes that leads to depression, either. It's at least as likely that the causes are circumstantial, and the whole industry is designed to push pharmaceuticals whether they are the best remedy or not. In fact, even questioning this abusive but profitable status quo is now considered a warning sign of mental illness, and th

    • Comment removed (Score:4, Interesting)

      by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Tuesday December 27, 2022 @01:58PM (#63161900)
      Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by gweihir ( 88907 )

      This also indicates that we do not know whether the root causes are actually physiological or mostly physiological. It is a rather strong hint that they may not be though.

  • This is the type of thing I expected to find in a cereal box when I was growing up.

    • Exactly. I remember there were (are?) mood rings back in the day.

      • Exactly. I remember there were (are?) mood rings back in the day.

        Oh thank god. I thought you all meant finding used medical waste consisting of left over brain implants.

  • Just sum a person's facebook, twitter, and reddit post counts = "self-hatred/depression score"

    Not slashdot, of course. This is purely tech news. If it just became about bullshit politics and current events, then we could include slashdot posts.

  • "but they have also found a way to stimulate a positive mood."

    The first step toward wire heading, the ultimate drug. How long ago did Larry Niven come up with that idea? Or was there someone even earlier?

    It also puts a new spin on old Klaus's "you WILL be happy" command.

  • The machine says you are depressed and an shouldn't be allowed to....
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • That would make me depressed right there.

  • I hope they include autistic people in the study also. Autistic people, are often misdiagnosed for depression.

  • They didn't create something that could measure depression. They tested an extremely invasive procedure that can monitor electrical signals in the brain that can be correlated to depressive symptoms. I'm not clear how this is any more useful than an MRI. It's certainly a lot more dangerous.

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