Scientists have identified a mechanism that suppresses intrusive thoughts

Opening explains why people with anxiety disorders, depression, and schizophrenia suffer from obsessions.

Michael Anderson (Michael Anderson)

Professor of the Medical Research Council of Great Britain.

"The ability to control your thoughts is paramount for our well-being, - says Anderson. - It is a violation of the most debilitating symptoms of psychological disorders: obsessive memories and images, hallucinations, Pathological anxiety. '

For the control of our actions corresponds to the prefrontal cortex. As it turned out, it also affects the control of thoughts. This area of ​​the brain is the main regulator, which sends signals to the motor cortex, responsible for the actions and hippocampus which is responsible for the memories. Recently, scientists have discovered in the course of the experimentHippocampal GABA enables inhibitory control over unwanted thoughts..

Participants were asked to memorize pairs of unrelated words, such as "test" / "cockroach", "moss" / "North". Then it was necessary to recall the second word of the pair, if the signal lights up in green, and suppress the memory, if the red. When there is a red word "test", the participants had to look at him, but did not think about doubles the word "cockroach".

Using fMRI method, researchers have observed that happens in the brain when the participants are trying to suppress their thoughts. A via magnetic resonance spectroscopy, it was possible to measure a biochemical changes.

It turned out, the ability to suppress unwanted thoughts based on the work of a neurotransmitter called GABA.

Neurotransmitters transmit signals between nerve cells and GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid) - a major inhibitory neurotransmitter of the nervous system. Standing out one nerve cell, it inhibits the activity of other related cells. According to the concentration of GABA in the hippocampus can predict whether a person will be able to block the thoughts and memories. During the experiment, those who have the amount of GABA in the hippocampus was smaller, barely suppressing unwanted thoughts.

According to Anderson, this discovery could help in the treatment of schizophrenia. People with this disease hyperactive hippocampus, and this is consistent with obsessive-compulsive symptoms like hallucinations. Pathological studies have shown that inhibitory neurons (which are used GABA) patients have abnormalities of the prefrontal cortex that is more difficult to regulate the activity of the hippocampus. It turns out, the hippocampus can not suppress intrusive thoughts and memories, and they are manifested in the form of hallucinations.

Previously, we could only say: "This area of ​​the brain affects the area of ​​the brain." But now we can assume what the role of inhibitory neurons in the suppression of unwanted thoughts.

Michael Anderson

Anderson believes that this discovery will help find a new approach to the treatment of obsessive thoughts. Previously we tried only affect the prefrontal cortex, but it is now clear that in order to block unwanted thoughts need to improve the work of GABA in the hippocampus.