Inherited depression Mothers and daughters have almost identical brain structures

Parents can pass on the predisposition for a mental illness to the next generation. If the father or mother suffers e.g. Consequently, children also have a higher risk of developing depression than other people. However, depressive mothers apparently "transmit" their suffering to their daughters more often than to their sons. Scientists were able to clear up this amazing relationship and published their findings in the "Journal of Neuroscience".
Limbic system reacts differently in female mice than in male mice
The so-called "limbic system" is a subsection of the brain, which is located above the brain stem. It consists of several structures, which are mainly responsible for the processing of emotions and memory processes. These include, for example, the amygdala, the hippocampus, the parahippocampal gyrus, and the corpus mamillare, which may also affect sexual functions.

Picture: contrast workshop - fotolia

Years ago researchers in animal studies had found that the limbic system apparently "ticks" differently in the brains of female and male baby mice. Because the scientists recognized that an increased stress load of the mouse nut in the pregnancy has a stronger effect on the brain structure of the female offspring. Parts of the limbic response had been more responsive to stress than male baby mice.

Brains of mothers and sons less similar
It has also been known for some time that daughters of mothers with depression have a higher risk than the sons to become depressed themselves. A team of scientists headed by Fumiko Hoeft at the University of California now wondered if this relationship could possibly be due to similarities in the brain structures between mothers and daughters. Hoeft and her colleagues examined 35 families who were not diagnosed with depression using magnetic resonance imaging and compared the volume of gray matter in the limbic system of the parents and their children. It turned out that the brains of mothers and daughters actually bore more resemblances than those of mothers and sons or fathers and their children.

However, this finding does not mean that mothers are responsible for a depression in the daughter, said Fumiko Hoeft, according to a press release from the University of California. "In depression, many factors play a role: non-mother genes, the social environment, and life experiences, to name three. The mother-daughter transmission is only part of it, "the scientist continues.

According to Hoeft, it can be assumed that the use of MRI scans will make it easier to research not only depression but also other neuropsychiatric diseases (such as Alzheimer's or schizophrenia) in which genes play a role. "The consideration of intergenerational patterns in the human brain opens the door to a whole new path in research," summarizes the scientist. (No)