During the teenage years, the brain changes, sometimes breaking unwanted connections between neurons.
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Many different conditions such as depression, phobias, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) can have the same underlying cause. It delays “pruning,” the process by which unwanted connections between brain cells disappear.
This finding comes from one of the largest brain-scanning studies done in adolescents, and has been confirmed by several other data sets involving people of other ages. , I was able to show that these are different [conditions] Barbara Sahakian of the University of Cambridge said:
This result gives weight to a controversial recent idea in neuroscience that many different conditions share a common cause, a concept known as the p-factor.
Until now, this has been largely based on the fact that many people may have multiple such conditions or be diagnosed with different conditions at different times in their lives. It was also based on DNA studies that found that the same set of genetic variants predisposes people to multiple diseases. conditions.
Sahakian and her colleagues now propose a neurobiological basis for the p factor, which they refer to as the ‘neuropsychopathological (NP) factor’.
The researchers conducted an initial analysis using an existing set of brain scan images of approximately 2000 teenagers assessed at age 14. It also contained information about various psychiatric symptoms.
Participants or their parents completed a questionnaire to generate a score for symptoms of mental health conditions such as depression, anxiety, eating disorders, and phobias. They were also scored for ADHD and assessed for symptoms of autistic traits.
Those who scored the highest for these conditions and demonstrated more severe symptoms tended to have denser tissue in the prefrontal cortex, the outer region of the brain at the front of the head. This, according to researchers, indicates that pruning is not occurring or delayed in their brains.
Pruning, which increases dramatically during puberty, is a mysterious process that begins in early childhood. increase. “As you learn and your brain becomes more efficient, it removes unnecessary extra synapses,” says Sahakian.
The study was not able to quantify pruning delays or differences in tissue density, at least to some extent later, Sahakian says.
This finding was confirmed in four other brain scan data sets, including a second collection of brain scans and symptom scores of nearly 2000 adolescents, and two studies involving people in their 20s. This indicates that lack of brain pruning is also correlated with brain function in adulthood.
Lack of pruning has been previously suggested as a cause of schizophrenia, ADHD, and autism, but not other conditions.
Robert Plomin of King’s College London, who has been involved in genetic studies supporting the ap-factor idea, says the newly proposed explanation is plausible as a contributor, but may not be all. I’m looking for,” he says.
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