Positive Memories Can Help You Fight Depression
Aside from helping you better regulate your emotions, positive memories can have a positive effect on stress-induced depression.
A group of researchers conducted an experiment to study this effect on laboratory mice. They discovered that artificial reactivation of good memories can suppress stress-induced depression. Let’s dive deeper into these findings.
Artificially induced positive memories
This study showed the relationship between positive memories and depression. It was published in the journal Nature and was conducted by researchers from the RIKEN-MIT Center for Neurological Genetics, the RIKEN Brain Science Institute in Japan and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
The study was conducted at Tonegawa Laboratory. Susumu Tonegawa is Director of the RIKEN Brain Science Institute and Professor at MIT. He received a Nobel Prize in 1987 for his discovery of the diversity of antibodies. The study that this article focuses on addresses the question of whether a positive memory can overwrite a negative one.
To answer this question , the researchers used genetic engineering. The goal was to create mice where they could label memory cells while creating memories. Afterwards, they would be able to reactivate these memories with an optical fiber that emits blue light implanted in the same place. The research group can then activate memory cells created during previous experiences.
To test the system, a male mouse was exposed to a positive experience. In this case, the positive experience was to see a female mouse. Then they created a memory of this event. Afterwards, they exposed the mice to a stressful experience that put them in a state similar to depression. While the mice were depressed, the researchers used the lights to stimulate the dentate gyrus in some of them and reactivated their positive experience cells.
It is important to store positive memories
Surprisingly, the mice experienced an improvement in their depressed mood. Apart from this, they discovered that two other areas of the brain cooperated with the dentate gyrus to activate positive memories: the nucleus accumbens and the basolateral amygdala.
On the other hand, the researchers wanted to investigate whether this type of recovery from depression can involve persistent changes in the brain circuits. In other words, they wanted to know if this would last even without the pleasure stimulation . For this purpose, the researchers administered chronic light therapy to the dentate gyrus for more than 5 days. They discovered that this guaranteed the sustained reactivation of positive memories.
The mice receiving this therapy were resistant to the adverse effects of stress-induced depression. This suggests that storing positive experiences in memory can help improve mood. These memories can be used to suppress or overwrite the negative effects of stress. This may represent a new way of controlling your mood.
What do these results mean?
The results have important implications for mood disorders such as depression . Beyond that, the findings also shed more light on stress.
Researchers do not yet understand very well the interplay between experiences, both positive and negative, and their corresponding memories. Despite this, these findings open the way to new areas of focus in therapy in mood disorders.
The study suggests that positive memories can reduce the effects of stress-induced depression. Nevertheless, the researchers stated that it is too early to come to any conclusions.
