Depression affects various areas of the brain including the area that controls the feeling of hatred, according to a study that used fMRI.
Researchers studied brain activity of 39 depressed people and 37 control (non-depressed) subjects and found the brain’s hate circuit was disconnected in the majority of depressed subjects.
“This in turn could lead to an inability to deal appropriately with feelings of hate and an increased likelihood of both uncontrolled self-loathing and withdrawal from social interactions. It may be that this is a neurological indication that is more normal to have occasion to hate others rather than hate ourselves,” one of the study authors said.
Circuits relating to risk and action response, reward and emotion, attention, and memory processing were all changed in depressed subjects.
Read more at Molecular Psychiatry