TING HOO Getty Images ( person in pain); COMPLEX STORIES ( TV timeline) 8 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN MIND September/October 2012 ( head lines ) Anyone living with chronic pain knows that it amounts to much more than an unpleasant bodily sensation. Fuzzy thinking, faulty memory, anxiety and depression often accompany long-term pain, suggesting that the condition is more of a whole-brain disorder than simply pain signaling gone haywire. New research from Northwestern University reveals a possible cause: an impaired hippocampus, a region criti- cal for learning, memory and emotional processing. Using anatomical brain scans, the researchers found that people suffering from chronic back pain or complex regional pain syndrome had a smaller hippocampus than healthy people. They then studied mice for further clues about how this region contributes to chronic pain’s cognitive side effects. As reported April 25 in the Journal of Neuroscience, mice in chronic pain had trouble with a test of emotional learning, and they displayed greater anxietylike behaviors than normal mice. In the hippocampus, electrical and biochemical signaling was disrupted. Perhaps most striking was the mice’s failure to produce new neurons in the hippocampus—one of the few brain areas where adult mice and humans can grow new neurons. Lead researcher A. Vania Apkarian suspects that the hippocampal size difference seen in humans might reflect the lack of neuron growth and other problems seen in the mice. Without new neurons forming, memory and emotional processes would also become impaired. The work under- scores the importance of treating “the suffering we associate with chronic pain” as a brain-based dis- order, Apkarian says, in addition to trying to target its perceived source in the body. —Stephani Sutherland >> MIND-BODY CONNECTION How Chronic Pain Affects Memory and Mood Constant discomfort may halt neuron growth in the hippocampus 22 Percentage of heterosexual couples in the U.S. who met online. Data are from 2007 to 2009—see page 26 for more 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s PSYCHOLOGY CENTRAL TO THE SHOW RECURRING MENTAL HEALTH PROFESSIONAL DEPICTS MENTAL HEALTH ISSUES THE DR. JOYCE BROTHERS SHOW DR. JOYCE BROTHERS CONSULT DR. BROTHERS TELL ME, DR. BROTHERS I DREAM OF JEANNIE ASK DR. BROTHERS THE BOB NEWHART SHOW LIVING EASY W/DR. BROTHERS THE PSYCHIATRIST MATT LINCOLN M*A*S*H • TAXI THE SIMPSONS M*A*S*H • CHEERS THE OPRAH WINFREY SHOW SO YOU THINK YOU GOT TROUBLES?! THE DR. JOYCE BROTHERS PROGRAM ST. ELSEWHERE • TAXI MURPHY BROWN Psychology: As Seen on TV! In 1958 psychologist Joyce Brothers was a lone voice sharing sex and relationship advice on television. Today mental health issues dominate TV programming, and stigmas linked with seeking therapy have diminished in turn. But not all the changes are positive. In 1987 psychiatrist Irving Schneider observed three main caricatures of mental health profes- sionals that still linger in popular culture: the sadistic Dr. Evil, perfect Dr. Wonderful, and nutty Dr. Dippy. Experts have also criticized crime dramas for overrepresenting the mentally ill as violent. Tropes not- withstanding, the rising presence of psychology on TV makes one thing clear: the doctor is on! –Daisy Yuhas
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8 scienTific american mind september/october 2012
(head lines)
Anyone living with chronic pain knows that it amounts to much more than an unpleasant bodily sensation. Fuzzy thinking, faulty memory, anxiety and depression often accompany long-term pain, suggesting that the condition is more of a whole-brain disorder than simply pain signaling gone haywire. New research from Northwestern University reveals a possible cause: an impaired hippocampus, a region criti-cal for learning, memory and emotional processing.
Using anatomical brain scans, the researchers found that people suffering from chronic back pain or complex regional pain syndrome had a smaller hippocampus than healthy people. They then studied mice for further clues about how this region
contributes to chronic pain’s cognitive side effects. As reported April 25 in the Journal of Neuroscience, mice in chronic pain had trouble with a test of emotional learning, and they displayed greater anxietylike behaviors than normal mice. In the hippocampus,
electrical and biochemical signaling was disrupted. Perhaps most striking was the mice’s failure to produce new neurons in the hippocampus—one of the few brain areas where adult mice and humans can grow new neurons.
Lead researcher A. Vania Apkarian suspects that the hippocampal size difference seen in humans might reflect the lack of neuron growth and other problems seen in the mice. Without new neurons forming, memory and emotional processes would also become impaired. The work under-scores the importance of treating “the suffering we associate with chronic pain” as a brain-based dis-order, Apkarian says, in addition to trying to target its perceived source in the body. —Stephani Sutherland
>> mind -BodY connecTion
How Chronic Pain Affects Memory and MoodConstant discomfort may halt neuron growth in the hippocampus
2000s 2010s ...1990s
HUFF • FRASIER
LIE TO ME • IN TREATMENT
CRIMINAL MINDS • WONDERLAND
HELP ME HELP YOU • TELL ME YOU LOVE ME
MENTAL • OBSESSED • HOARDERS • INTERVENTION
DR. PHIL • HEAD CASE • ER • SCRUBS • ALLY MCBEAL
ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT • FRINGE • THE SOPRANOS • CASTLE
THE BIG BANG THEORY • LAW & ORDER • LAW & ORDER SVU • OZ
LAW & ORDER: TRIAL BY JURY • GREY'S ANATOMY • ARMY WIVES
NCIS • THE MENTALIST • PSYCH • LOST • CSI • CSI: NY • CSI: MIAMI
THE SIMPSONS • PRIVATE PRACTICE • THE WEST WING • BONES • NURSE
JACKIE • TWO AND A HALF MEN • CELEBRITY REHAB • NIP/TUCK
SIX FEET UNDER • MAD MEN• HEROES • STRONG MEDICINE
THE UNITED STATES OF TARA • MONK• HOUSE • COMMUNITY
BREAKING BAD • BECKER • GLEE • MERCY
CROSSING JORDAN • FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS
DIRT • SUE THOMAS F.B.EYE • DOLLHOUSE
STARVED • DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES
DEXTER • BOSTON LEGAL
FRASIER
DR. KATZ • PROFILER
ER • ALLY MCBEAL
CHEERS • THE SOPRANOS
LAW & ORDER• LAW & ORDER SVU
THE SIMPSONS • THE WEST WING
CHICAGO HOPE • OZ • BECKER
MURPHY BROWN
LIE TO ME
NECESSARY ROUGHNESS • ADDICTED
IN TREATMENT • CRIMINAL MINDS
MY CRAZY OBSESSION • MY STRANGE ADDICTION
OBSESSED • HOARDERS • HOARDING: BURIED ALIVE
INTERVENTION • DR. PHIL • AMERICAN HORROR STORY • PERCEPTION
WEB THERAPY • LIFECHANGERS • BODY OF PROOF • CELEBRITY REHAB
AWAKE • CASTLE • LAW & ORDER • LAW & ORDER CRIMINAL INTENT
LAW & ORDER LA • LAW & ORDER SVU • GREY'S ANATOMY • ARMY WIVES
TWO AND A HALF MEN • ONCE UPON A TIME • HAPPY ENDINGS • UP ALL NIGHT
THE BIG BANG THEORY • NCIS • NCIS: LOS ANGELES • A GIFTED MAN • NIKITA
COMMON LAW • THE MENTALIST • PSYCH • LOST • CSI • DO NO HARM
CSI: NY • CSI: MIAMI • THE SIMPSONS • PRIVATE PRACTICE • BONES
DEXTER • UNFORGETTABLE • GO ON • HOMELAND • WILFRED
SHAMELESS • THE BIG C • THE UNITED STATES OF TARA • HOUSE
PARENTHOOD • ALPHAS • COMMUNITY • BREAKING BAD
GLEE • DOLLHOUSE • FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS
DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES
MERCY
22Percentage of heterosexual couples in the U.S. who met online. Data are from 2007 to 2009—see page 26 for more
1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s
PSYCHOLOGY CENTRALTO THE SHOW
RECURRING MENTALHEALTH PROFESSIONAL
DEPICTS MENTALHEALTH ISSUES
THEDR. JOYCEBROTHERS
SHOW
DR. JOYCE BROTHERS
CONSULT DR. BROTHERS
TELL ME, DR. BROTHERS
I DREAM OF JEANNIE
ASK DR. BROTHERS
THE BOB NEWHART SHOW
LIVING EASY W/DR. BROTHERS
THE PSYCHIATRIST
MATT LINCOLN
M*A*S*H • TAXI
THE SIMPSONS
M*A*S*H • CHEERS
THE OPRAH WINFREY SHOW
SO YOU THINK YOU GOT TROUBLES?!
THE DR. JOYCE BROTHERS PROGRAM
ST. ELSEWHERE • TAXI
MURPHY BROWN
Psychology: As Seen on TV!In 1958 psychologist Joyce Brothers was a lone voice sharing sex and relationship advice on television. Today mental health issues dominate TV programming, and stigmas linked with seeking therapy have diminished in turn. But not all the changes
are positive. In 1987 psychiatrist Irving Schneider observed three main caricatures of mental health profes-sionals that still linger in popular culture: the sadistic Dr. Evil, perfect Dr. Wonderful, and nutty Dr. Dippy. Experts have also criticized crime
dramas for overrepresenting the mentally ill as violent. Tropes not-withstanding, the rising presence of psychology on TV makes one thing clear: the doctor is on! –Daisy Yuhas
MiQ512News3p.indd 8 7/2/12 5:38 PM
www.Scientif icAmerican.com/Mind Scientific AMericAn Mind 9
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Like an overwhelmed traffic cop, the depressed brain may transmit signals among regions in a dysfunctional way. Recent brain-imaging studies suggest that areas of the brain involved in mood, concentration and conscious thought are hyperconnect-ed, which scientists believe could lead to the problems with focus, anxiety and memory frequently seen in depression.
Using functional MRI and electroencephalography (EEG), psychiatrist Andrew Leuchter of the University of California, Los Angeles, and his colleagues measured the activity of depressed patients’ brains at rest. They found that the limbic and cortical areas, which to-gether produce and process our emotions, sent a barrage of neural messages back and forth to one another—much more than in the brains of healthy patients. These signals, Leuchter says,
can amplify depressed people’s negative thoughts and act like white noise, drowning out the other neural mes sages telling them to move on.
A separate study by psychiatrist Shuqiao Yao of Central South University in Hunan, China, produced a more nuanced view of these two areas’ hyperconnect-ivity. In work published in Biological Psychiatry in April, Yao and his col-leagues reported that stronger links among certain corticolimbic circuits are seen in patients more prone to rumination, the act of continuously replaying negative thoughts. Less connectivity in other corticolimbic circuits corresponded to autobio-graphical memory im-pairments, which is another common feature that appears in depression.
Scientists do not know whether these connectivity changes are a cause or an effect of depression. A study earlier this year in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, however, found that elec-troconvulsive therapy—formerly known as shock therapy—both alleviates depression’s symptoms and decreases connectivity in the
hub where the cortical and limbic systems intersect. These results, says lead author Jennifer S. Perrin, a psychologist at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland, confirm that hyperconnectivity is a hallmark of depression in the brain and should provide a target for new drugs and treatments.
—Carrie Arnold
2000s 2010s ...1990s
HUFF • FRASIER
LIE TO ME • IN TREATMENT
CRIMINAL MINDS • WONDERLAND
HELP ME HELP YOU • TELL ME YOU LOVE ME
MENTAL • OBSESSED • HOARDERS • INTERVENTION
DR. PHIL • HEAD CASE • ER • SCRUBS • ALLY MCBEAL
ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT • FRINGE • THE SOPRANOS • CASTLE
THE BIG BANG THEORY • LAW & ORDER • LAW & ORDER SVU • OZ
LAW & ORDER: TRIAL BY JURY • GREY'S ANATOMY • ARMY WIVES
NCIS • THE MENTALIST • PSYCH • LOST • CSI • CSI: NY • CSI: MIAMI
THE SIMPSONS • PRIVATE PRACTICE • THE WEST WING • BONES • NURSE
JACKIE • TWO AND A HALF MEN • CELEBRITY REHAB • NIP/TUCK
SIX FEET UNDER • MAD MEN• HEROES • STRONG MEDICINE
THE UNITED STATES OF TARA • MONK• HOUSE • COMMUNITY
BREAKING BAD • BECKER • GLEE • MERCY
CROSSING JORDAN • FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS
DIRT • SUE THOMAS F.B.EYE • DOLLHOUSE
STARVED • DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES
DEXTER • BOSTON LEGAL
FRASIER
DR. KATZ • PROFILER
ER • ALLY MCBEAL
CHEERS • THE SOPRANOS
LAW & ORDER• LAW & ORDER SVU
THE SIMPSONS • THE WEST WING
CHICAGO HOPE • OZ • BECKER
MURPHY BROWN
LIE TO ME
NECESSARY ROUGHNESS • ADDICTED
IN TREATMENT • CRIMINAL MINDS
MY CRAZY OBSESSION • MY STRANGE ADDICTION
OBSESSED • HOARDERS • HOARDING: BURIED ALIVE
INTERVENTION • DR. PHIL • AMERICAN HORROR STORY • PERCEPTION
WEB THERAPY • LIFECHANGERS • BODY OF PROOF • CELEBRITY REHAB
AWAKE • CASTLE • LAW & ORDER • LAW & ORDER CRIMINAL INTENT
LAW & ORDER LA • LAW & ORDER SVU • GREY'S ANATOMY • ARMY WIVES
TWO AND A HALF MEN • ONCE UPON A TIME • HAPPY ENDINGS • UP ALL NIGHT
THE BIG BANG THEORY • NCIS • NCIS: LOS ANGELES • A GIFTED MAN • NIKITA
COMMON LAW • THE MENTALIST • PSYCH • LOST • CSI • DO NO HARM
CSI: NY • CSI: MIAMI • THE SIMPSONS • PRIVATE PRACTICE • BONES
