(Press-News.org) To pinpoint why depression messes with memory, researchers took a page from Sesame Street's book.
The show's popular game "One of these things is not like the others" helps young viewers learn to differentiate things that are similar – a process known as "pattern separation."
A new Brigham Young University study concludes that this same skill fades in adults in proportion to the severity of their symptoms of depression. The more depressed someone feels, the harder it is for them to distinguish similar experiences they've had.
If you've ever forgotten where you parked the car, you know the feeling (though it doesn't mean you have depression).
"That's really the novel aspect of this study – that we are looking at a very specific aspect of memory," said Brock Kirwan, a psychology and neuroscience professor at BYU.
Depression has been generally linked to poor memory for a long time. To find out why, Kirwan and his former grad student D.J. Shelton put people through a computer-aided memory test. The participants viewed a series of objects on the screen. For each one, they responded whether they had seen the object before on the test (old), seen something like it (similar), or not seen anything like it (new).
With old and new items, participants with depression did just fine. They often got it wrong, however, when looking at objects that were similar to something they had seen previously. The most common incorrect answer was that they had seen the object before.
"They don't have amnesia," Kirwan said. "They are just missing the details."
This can be a challenge in a number of everyday situations, such as trying to remember which friends and family members you've told about something personal – and which ones are still in the dark.
The findings also give an important clue about what is happening in the brain that might explain this.
"There are two areas in your brain where you grow new brain cells," Kirwan said. "One is the hippocampus, which is involved in memory. It turns out that this growth is decreased in cases of depression."
Because of this study, we know a little more about what these new brain cells are for: helping us see and remember new experiences. The study appears in the journal Behavioral Brain Research.
INFORMATION:
How depression blurs memories
2013-10-03
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
3D dynamic imaging of soft materials
2013-10-03
Autumn is usually not such a great time for big special effects movies as the summer blockbusters have faded and those for the holiday season have not yet opened. Fall is more often the time for thoughtful films about small subjects, which makes it perfect for the unveiling of a new movie produced by researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)'s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab). Through a combination of transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and their own unique graphene liquid cell, the researchers have recorded the three-dimensional motion of ...
Innovative approach could ultimately end deadly disease of sleeping sickness
2013-10-03
CORVALLIS, Ore. – A tag team of two bacteria, one of them genetically modified, has a good chance to reduce or even eliminate the deadly disease African trypanosomiasis, or sleeping sickness, researchers at Oregon State University conclude in a recent mathematical modeling study.
African trypanosomiasis, caused by a parasite carried by the tsetse fly, infects 30,000 people in sub-Saharan Africa each year and is almost always fatal without treatment. In a 2008 epidemic, 48,000 people died.
In this research, scientists evaluated the potential for success of a new approach ...
New study suggests changing bacterial mix may lead to painful sex after menopause
2013-10-03
CLEVELAND, Ohio (October 3, 2013) -- The mix of bacteria in the vagina changes as women go through menopause. And a certain mix is typical after menopause in women who have vulvovaginal atrophy (VVA), a common cause of vaginal dryness and sexual pain, finds a team at Johns Hopkins and the University of Maryland. They suspect these bacteria may play a role in causing VVA and that personalized probiotics or other ways to manage the bacterial mix might prevent or treat VVA in the future. Their study was published online today in Menopause, the journal of The North American ...
Health of honey bees adversely impacted by selenium
2013-10-03
RIVERSIDE, Calif. — Traditionally, honey bee research has focused on environmental stressors such as pesticides, pathogens and diseases. Now a research team led by entomologists at the University of California, Riverside has published a study that focuses on an anthropogenic pollutant: selenium (Se).
The researchers found that the four main forms of Se in plants — selenate, selenite, methylselenocysteine and selenocystine — cause mortality and delays in development in the honey bee.
"Metal pollutants like selenium contaminate soil, water, can be accumulated in plants, ...
Researchers unveil method for creating 're-specified' stem cells for disease modeling
2013-10-03
Boston, Mass., Oct. 3, 2013 – In a paper in Cell Stem Cell, a team led by researchers in the Boston Children's Hospital's Stem Cell Transplantation Program reports a new approach for turning induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) into hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells for in vivo disease modeling.
With this strategy—which they call re-specification—the team, including Sergei Doulatov, PhD, and George Daley, MD, PhD, of Boston Children's, may have overcome technical barriers to generating blood disease-specific animal models from the thousands of iPSC cell lines ...
Old remedy shows promise as new chemo drug for bladder cancer
2013-10-03
MAYWOOD, Il. – An old home remedy called ipecac syrup, once stocked in medicine cabinets in case of accidental poisoning, is showing promise as a new chemotherapy drug for bladder cancer.
Years ago, ipecac syrup was used to induce vomiting in poisoning cases. Now a Loyola University Medical Center study has found that the active ingredient of ipecac syrup effectively inhibits the growth of bladder cancer cells, especially when combined with a standard chemotherapy drug.
The study by corresponding authors Kimberly Foreman, PhD, Gopal Gupta, MD, and colleagues is published ...
No kissing or singing in the rain
2013-10-03
Since remote times humans have been interested in the weather and have used different strategies to predict bad storms. Some of these strategies rely on the observation that in anticipation of storms, birds fly at low heights and cows lie down. Some people even claim to feel their bones ache. These and other similar accounts have been reported but not scientifically tested.
In a paper entitled Weather Forecasting by Insects: Modified Sexual Behaviour in Response to Atmospheric Pressure Changes, the group of Dr José Maurício Simões Bento at University of São Paulo (College ...
Insects modify mating behavior in anticipation of storms
2013-10-03
Insects modify calling and courting mating behavior in response to changes in air pressure, according to results published October 2 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Ana Cristina Pellegrino and José Maurício Bento, University of São Paulo, and colleagues from other institutions. The bugs' ability to predict adverse weather conditions may help them modify their mating behavior during high winds and rain, reducing risk of injury or even death.
Researchers studied mating behavior changes in the curcurbit beetle, the true armyworm moth, and the potato aphid under falling, ...
Depression may increase your risk of Parkinson's disease
2013-10-03
MINNEAPOLIS -- People who are depressed may have triple the risk of developing Parkinson's disease, according to a study published in the October 2, 2013, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
"Depression is linked in other studies to illnesses such as cancer and stroke," said study author Albert C. Yang, MD, PhD, with Taipei Veterans General Hospital in Taipei, Taiwan. "Our study suggests that depression may also be an independent risk factor for Parkinson's disease."
Researchers analyzed the medical records of 4,634 ...
Scientists find insect DEET receptors, develop safe alternatives to DEET
2013-10-03
RIVERSIDE, Calif. — Insects are repelled by N,N-diethyl-m-toluamide, also known as DEET. But exactly which olfactory receptors insects use to sense DEET has eluded scientists for long.
Now researchers at the University of California, Riverside have identified these DEET-detecting olfactory receptors that cause the repellency — a major breakthrough in the field of olfaction.
Further, the team of researchers has identified three safe compounds that mimic DEET and could one day be used to prevent the transmission of deadly vector-borne diseases such as malaria, dengue, ...