Volume 1 Issue 10, October 2023

Sex steroid hormones are powerful neuromodulators of learning and memory. A new study in humans links rhythmic oscillations in ovarian hormone levels to changes in medial temporal lobe morphology.

A study drawing on the expansive UK Biobank dataset to explore the lifestyle, genetic and biological underpinnings of mental health highlights the influence of lifestyle on depression risk and suggests that detailed investigations into lifestyle factors, in conjunction with psychological aspects and advanced analysis methods, may reveal a deeper understanding of the complexities of mental health.

Some individuals with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) experience a series of symptoms attributable to ‘dissociation’ — severance either with themselves or their surroundings. A new study on the neurobiology of dissociation in PTSD uses functional MRI analysis to identify unique patterns of brain–behavior associations.

The role of personality in brain health remains unclear. A systematic search demonstrated that lower levels of warmth, diligence, sociability and curiosity, and a higher level of nervousness, were predictive of increased risk of brain disorders. Brain structure, inflammation and lipid metabolism partially explain the associations between personality and brain disorders.

A large-scale prospective cohort study with 287,282 participants revealed that the integration of multiple healthy lifestyle factors (a favorable lifestyle) was associated with a lower risk of depression. Categorizing participants on the basis of their polygenic risk scores for depression demonstrated that the effect of this favorable lifestyle persisted even among participants with high genetic susceptibility.

The authors used region of interest (ROI)-to-ROI analysis to investigate functional connectivity patterns in patients with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and its dissociative subtype compared with healthy controls.

Using a large dataset of approximately 300,000 individuals from the UK Biobank, Zhang, Deng, Li et al. investigated the relationships between personality traits, brain health, inflammation and metabolites.

Zhao, Yang et al. used UK Biobank data to examine the role of lifestyle factors in depression. They conducted multiple analyses and estimated underlying mechanisms related to brain structure, immunometabolism and genetics.

In this exposome-wide association study using the FinnTwin12 cohort, Wang et al. show that familial component of social exposure has a significant association with depressive symptoms in late adolescence and early adulthood.

In this longitudinal ultra-high field neuroimaging study, Zsido et al. show the shared dynamics between the ovarian hormone fluctuations across the menstrual cycle and structural plasticity within the medial temporal lobe.

In this study Stubbs et al. find that neuroimaging neuroimaging abnormalities across substance use disorders map to a common brain network that is similar across imaging modalities and substance use categories.

In this retrospective study, Wen and colleagues used data from the Adolescent Brain and Cognitive Development cohort study to investigate the neurobiological, psychological and social characteristics that are associated with self-injurious thoughts and behaviours transitions in children.

The authors conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to identify predictors of placebo response in repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation treatment for depression.