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Dr. Assaf Ramot, a postdoctoral fellow in Prof. Alon Chen's group in the Institute's Department of Neurobiology, led the research pinpointing a small, previously unknown group of nerve cells in the paraventricular nucleus, or PVN, within the hypothalamus -- a part of the brain involved in regulating many of the body's reactions. These cells' position in the PVN led the researchers to suppose that the nerve cells play a role in the stress response. Prof. Chen explains that in the well-known stress response, the neurotransmitter corticotrophin releasing factor (CRF) is released from the PVN and goes to the pituitary gland. The pituitary gland releases hormones that then cause the adrenal gland to flood the bloodstream with the "stress hormone" cortisol. The cortisol, along with the regular stress response, lowers the production of CRF, thus causing a negative feedback loop in which the mechanism slows down and stops. A positive-feedback loop The newly di...

The World Health Organization estimates that globally, 350 million people of all ages suffer from depression. Among the mix of symptoms that characterize the condition are cognitive dysfunctions -- difficulty concentrating, remembering details and making decisions. These symptoms tend to linger even as other symptoms fade, which can seriously hamper a person's ability to work or study. Marco A. Riva and colleagues wanted to determine how depression might affect the brain on a molecular level. The researchers found that certain proteins were expressed in higher amounts in a control group of rats in response to a standard cognitive test -- novel object recognition -- than in rats with symptoms characteristic of human depression. Other recent studies have suggested that these proteins, including oligophrenin-1 and Bmal1, play a role in cognitive processes. The researchers say that their findings could help inform future searches for treatments for major depression and stress-rel...

The research by Lisa Underwood, Ph.D., of the University of Auckland, New Zealand, and coauthors follows up on their studies of perinatal depression in mothers. The current study examined antenatal depression  symptoms (ADS, before birth) and postnatal depression symptoms (PDS, after birth) in 3,523 men who completed interviews while their partner was in the third trimester of pregnancy and nine months after the birth of their child. The men were an average age of 33 at the antenatal interview. The authors report 2.3 percent of fathers (82 men) were affected by elevated ADS during their partner's pregnancy and 4.3 percent of fathers (153 men) were affected by elevated PDS nine months after the child was born. Elevated depression symptoms for men during a partner's pregnancy were associated with perceived stress and fair to poor health, while elevated depression symptoms in fathers after a child's birth were associated with perceived stress in pregnancy, no longer ...