The depression It is, perhaps, the most recognized psychopathology and with the highest prevalence rates, along with others such as anxiety-related disorders.
It is estimated that, in the Kingdom of Spain alone, a 25% of the population suffers from a depressive disorderand a fifth of these people suffer from a serious disorder.
However, beyond the lack of hope, sadness, lack of energy and asthenia, the consequences of depression also develop in other areas, causing really curious changes in our personality and in our cognition.
1. Depression compresses brain size
An investigation carried out by scientists at Yale University detected that Depression can cause a reduction in brain volumebecause the neurons in some regions are smaller in size and lose density. Consequently, neuronal connections are altered. To reach this conclusion, the brain tissue of people with and without depression was studied comparatively.
It seems that this effect is due to GATA1a protein that contributes to the regulation of the transcription of genetic material and is activated in the brain of people affected by depression.
GATA1 inhibits the expression of some of the genotypes that participate in the construction of synaptic connections, affecting the dimensions and complexity of dendrites, basic agents for synapsis to occur. This loss of volume not only causes alterations in the affectivity and cognitive capacity of the subject, but also causes a decrease in the mass of the prefrontal cortex, whose function is to facilitate decision making, control over impulses and management. emotional.
A study conducted at Brigham Young University revealed that Depressive disorders cause the effect of blurring memories. For years now, depression has been related to a faulty memorybut the mechanism that caused this phenomenon was unknown.
The study recruited subjects diagnosed with depressive symptoms, and others without psychopathological symptoms. The subjects were exposed to a series of objects that appeared on a screen. Later, they were presented with the same objects, and they had to indicate whether they had seen them before, if any object resembled one seen before, or if it was a new object unrelated to those seen previously.
After studying the results, the researchers noticed that subjects with depression had a greater tendency to confuse some objects, marking them as similar to others that had appeared before. This suggests that depression does not cause amnesia but rather a decrease in the precision of details. It could be said that people with depression have a less skillful, blurred memory, and that is why they cannot remember some details.
3. Depression sharpens the perception of time
Although depression is always perceived as something purely negative, this third point points out a small psychophysiological advantage. Research carried out at the University of Hertfordshire found that Depressed people have more precise time perception than non-depressed people.
The research recruited subjects with moderate depression, and others without a diagnosis of disorder. Both groups had to listen to five tones whose duration ranged between 5 and 60 seconds, and immediately afterward they were asked to remember a number (it was a disruptive task), and then they were asked to produce as concrete an approximation as possible of the number. the duration of each tune.
It was surprising to see that, almost without exception, people without depression estimated the time of the tones higher than the actual time, while, in contrast, people with depression guessed the time much better.
The reason for this could be found in a controversial concept, called “depressive realism.” Depressive realism maintains that People with depression are not affected by positive and optimistic expectations that do alter the perception of reality in people who do not suffer from depression.
