A potential role for sensory neuroplasticity in major depressive disorder.pdf

Brain imaging and electrophysiological
recordings of primary and secondary sensory cortices indicate that each is arranged
into sub-regions that process specific subsets of environmental stimuli. The sizes of these regions, termed cortical response
fields (CRFs), have been correlated with the consciously perceived intensity of
their respective stimuli and with the neural processing power devoted to
analyzing such stimuli. Typically, CRFs are highly plastic, and their
experience-dependent plasticity is modulated by attention and reinforcement.
Because of this, disorders with negative attentional bias, such as major
depressive disorder (MDD), have the potential to significantly alter these maps
in psychologically harmful ways. We review literature suggesting that sensory
map plasticity plays a role in the initiation and maintenance of major
depressive disorder. Such a role would suggest possible new treatments for MDD,
and may help explain mechanisms of existing treatments.