The Upward Spiral: Using Neuroscience to Reverse the Course of Depression, One Small Change at a Time

by Alex Korb

depression generally involves a problem with how the thinking and feeling circuits in the brain get out of whack. While your brain can be divided into dozens of regions, the circuits that cause depression rely on relatively few. Two parts of the brain in particular are to blame: the prefrontal cortex and the limbic system. To simplify, the prefrontal cortex is basically the thinking part of the brain, and the limbic system is the feeling part. In depression, something is off with the way these regions act and communicate with each other. The thinking prefrontal cortex is supposed to help regulate the feeling limbic system, but it’s not doing a good job.