What is it about?
While the symptoms of depression are well-known, understanding how it develops in the brain has been a significant challenge. This paper proposes a new model called the Negative Prediction Mechanism (NPM) to explain how depression could arise and worsen over time. The NPM emphasizes dynamic interactions between eight key brain regions, suggesting that repeated activation of large-scale brain networks in response to negative stimuli may increasingly reset the brain's cognitive baseline to be more negative, eventually producing depression.
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Why is it important?
The NPM addresses critical gaps in the literature by providing a comprehensive, integrative, and mechanistic framework for understanding how depression develops and persists. Its focus on predictive processing, multinetwork interactions, and dynamic, time-dependent changes sets it apart from existing theories. The NPM is written as a core, adaptable framework capable of being expanded to explain the diverse symptomatic outcomes of depression.
Perspectives
I am excited to share the very first network-specific model capable of describing how depression develops over time. I hope that this work helps guide future researchers in uncovering the origins of this disorder.
Nathaniel Hutchinson-Wong
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: How does depressive cognition develop? A state-dependent network model of predictive processing., Psychological Review, November 2024, American Psychological Association (APA),
DOI: 10.1037/rev0000512.
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