Here's a pretty picture worth a look: a spinning 3-D view of populations of new neurons in a rat hippocampus. Check it out at
The Scientist : Brain Cell Video
Needs a fast connection, so take a pass if you're using dial-up.
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Right on that page there's an interesting talkback which made me think about depression in a new way, other than "just" faulty neurons or sad experiences in life.
I wonder how many different sorts of depression are there...
(sorry for double posting this talkback, I typed in my old email address instead of this one)
Right on that page there's an interesting talkback which made me think about depression in a new way, other than "just" faulty neurons or sad experiences in life.
I wonder how many different sorts of depression are there...
My own experience researching depression -- or rather researching people who research depression -- suggests that, like autism, depression will increasingly get broken down into diagnostic and mechanistic subtypes as we learn more about it. Depression as currently described is really a set of symptoms rather than defined mechanisms; as we spot different mechanisms at work, the diagnoses, the treatments, and perhaps the very concept of depression will change.