Summary: A recent study found that witnessing others go through stress can boost one’s tenacity and prevent depression. Researchers found that norepinephrine, released in the mind’s habenula, plays a vital role in this process, enhancing endurance by altering cerebral exercise.
After observing people in similar circumstances, animals exposed to traumatic events showed less depressive actions. This finding, along with research into treatments like stimulants, could lead to fresh treatments for depression by focusing on dopamine channels.
Important Information:
- Serotonin transfer in the habenula increases resilience by being observed.
- Serotonin interactions in the brain may defend against depression-like actions.
- This research opens new opportunities for despair treatments, including serotonin-targeting therapies.
Origin: University of Lausanne
The basic act of observing other people deal with distressing experiences can strengthen our endurance and stop compulsive says, most notably depression, that can result from it.  , Researchers at UNIL have demonstrated the presence of this “emotional disease” in mice, and properly deciphered its system.  ,
The neurotransmitter dopamine, released in a brain structure called the habenula, has been shown to be the code to endurance.  ,
This finding, published in , Science, revisits the position of dopamine and opens up new perspectives, somewhat for understanding melancholy and its care.
Humans are capable of coping with negative experiences while leading a normal lifestyle. This skill is known as endurance. However, some people are more susceptible to traumatic situations. They develop a reduction of motivation and drive, which are cornerstones of despair.
Promoting resilience in these vulnerable individuals could counteract their risk and serve as a preventative measure for the development of a neurotic state. However, endurance should still be used as a protective exercise because there are still very many possibilities.
Manuel Mameli, Associate Professor at the University of Biology and Medicine, University of Lausanne ( UNIL), states that” there are a lack of diagnostic tools or underlying systems to encourage this type of fitness worthy of fostering a resilient effect as in good people.”
To do this, Manuel Mameli’s team has successfully tackled the problem of understanding the mental work behind suffering.
Observing for self-preservation
The UNIL neuroscientists created an experimental design capable of promoting endurance and measuring its effects on the development of compulsive traits following stress in order to understand the underlying brain mechanisms.
” We started with the recognized realization that learning from some ‘ personal experiences is merely a matter of observing them.” It’s a trend known as personal infection, and it engages resilience”, explains Manuel Mameli.  ,
To achieve this, an “observer” rat was placed near to a rat subjected to little electric shocks to the legs. The majority of the watcher mice were saved from compulsive states of melancholy by performing this straightforward task. Mice who had not experienced the traumatic experience of their companions did not suffer the same fate.
The scientists came to the conclusion that the basic act of observing people deal with distressing experiences strengthens individual’s capacity for endurance and helps prevent potential pathological consequences.
Serotonin, the endurance protein
The neuroscientists were able to identify the brain’s method that was driving this behavioral principle after it was discovered. They focused on the habenula, a little cognitive construction located at the heart of the mind, known to join in emotional and visual processing, and to manage neurotransmitters associated with depression, somewhat serotonin. To observe this protein in mice, they created imaging tools especially to accomplish this.
The variant of serotonin in the brain is very difficult to measure. Owing to a sensor developed by Yulong Li of Peking University, co-author of the research, we were able to identify the key mechanism”, adds Manuel Mameli.
According to recordings made during cognitive experiments, personal contagion was linked to a long-lasting alter in the habenula’s neuronal functioning, as well as a rise in serotonin release in this region.
More precisely, according to Sarah Mondoloni, postdoctoral fellow in Manuel Mameli’s lab at UNIL and second inspector of the investigation, “it is the relationships of serotonin that change during this process, and this is the key finding of our research”.
The research team was able to demonstrate that the increase in serotonin levels artificially altered both the ability of mice to foster resilience following adversity and the long-lasting neuronal activity change in the habenula.  ,
Re-exploring the mechanisms of depression
Serotonin is the common denominator between depression and the resilience-building mechanism discovered in this study. Serotonin is targeted by a number of antidepressants to increase its brain concentration. Neuroscientists demonstrate that a transient, localized increase in the habenula can stop apathetic behavior following atraumatic experience.
” This characteristic of the serotonergic system is fascinating information for neuroscientists. However, our discovery may also open the door to the development of novel therapeutic approaches to treating depression, such as by testing existing pharmacological serotonin activators, such as psychedelic pharmacological treatments that activate the serotonin system. Their use could be refined to achieve better therapeutic approaches”, concludes Manuel Mameli.
About this information on research on serotonin and PTSD
Author: Géraldine Falbriard
Source: University of Lausanne
Contact: Géraldine Falbriard – University of Lausanne
Image: The image is credited to Neuroscience News
Original Research: The findings will appear in Science
