Differences Between Sadness And Depression

YouTube

In the United States, close to 10 percent of the population struggles with depression, but sometimes it can take a long time for someone to even understand that they are suffering. One difficulty in diagnosis is trying to distinguish between feeling down and experiencing clinical depression.

A new TED-Ed video can help someone make the distinction. With simple animation, the video explains how clinical depression lasts longer than two weeks, with a range of symptoms that can include changes in appetite, poor concentration, restlessness, sleep disorders (either too much or too little), and suicidal ideation. The video briefly discusses the neuroscience behind the illness, outlines treatments, and offers advice on how you can help a friend or loved one who may have depression.

Unlike the many pharmaceutical ads out there with their cute mascots and vague symptoms, the video uses animation to provide clarity about the mental disorder. It’s similar in its poignant simplicity to the HBO short documentary, “My Depression,” based on Liz Swados’s book of the same name.

GOOD Magazine | TED-Ed on YouTube

Andres Lozano | Using Deep Brain Stimulation To Treat Dysfunctional Circuitry

Link

... Because of new imaging techniques and advances in our understanding of neurophysiology, neurological and psychiatric disorders are increasingly being recognized as disorders of circuit functions in the brain. Using techniques such as DBS [deep brain stimulation], neurosurgeons are able to pinpoint malfunctioning circuits and to recalibrate them. DBS is very precise—the electrode is inserted through the skull and into any area of the brain to deliver electricity.

Dr Andres Lozano is chief of neurosurgery at the University of Toronto, where he and his team are studying the use of DBS to turn brain circuits on and off, depending on the circuits’ role in certain disorders (e.g., movement, mood, memory). In his presentation on Ted Talks, Lozano describes the case of a little boy with dystonia who is no longer able to stand or walk and whose prognosis is dismal—he will be progressively more disabled and his chances of survival are nil. Dr Lozano and his team used DBS to suppress the circuits in his brain responsible for movement. Three months later the boy is walking. As a young adult he is living a normal life and going to university.

Both pharmacological and psychotherapeutic modalities are used to treat MDD, yet 10% to 20% of patients with depression do not respond to treatment. PET scans have shown that areas of the brain responsible for motivation, drive, and decision making are impaired in patients with severe depression, and the sadness center is overactive. After six months of continuous DBS, the sadness center is turned off, and the circuits responsible for motivation, drive, and decision making have made a comeback.

Similar positive results were seen when DBS was used in patients with early Alzheimer disease. Healthy brains use 20% of the body’s supply of glucose—as Alzheimer disease progresses, glucose utilization shuts down. Dr Lozano and his team wanted to know if this “power failure” could be reversed. They placed DBS electrodes in the Fornix area of the brain and looked at what happened to glucose consumption. After one month, areas of the brain that had stopped using glucose had resumed consumption. The implications seem to be that not only can DBS modify symptoms but that the technique can help repair damaged areas of the brain as well.

Psychiatric Times

Allan Savory | How To Green The Deserts And Reverse Climate Change

YouTube

Mike Rowe | The Lessons Of Dirty Jobs

Jack Horner | Building A Chickenosaurus

Renowned paleontologist Jack Horner has spent his career trying to reconstruct a dinosaur. He's found fossils with extraordinarily well-preserved blood vessels and soft tissues, but never intact DNA. So, in a new approach, he's taking living descendants of the dinosaur (chickens) and genetically engineering them to reactivate ancestral traits — including teeth, tails, and even hands — to make a "Chickenosaurus".

Oh jeebus, someone made a chicken with teeth?

Link

Monkey Monday | Evolution's Gift Of Play From Bonobos

With never-before-seen video, primatologist Isabel Behncke Izquierdo (a TED Fellow) shows how bonobo ape society learns from constantly playing -- solo, with friends, even as a prelude to sex. Indeed, play appears to be the bonobos' key to problem-solving and avoiding conflict. If it works for our close cousins, why not for us?

Link