Depression does lead to fuzzy thinking

If you are pushed down and experience that your understanding and reasoning ability has become “fuzzy” or less sharp, you are right.

A new research has expressed that the impact is actually real, adding that this condition falls in the category of mood disorders.

Researchers of University of Michigan’s medical school and depression centre analysed 612 women.

More than two-thirds of them had practiced either major depression or bipolar disorder.

Observed as groups, women with depression or bipolar disorder did equally badly on the test, which required sustained concentration.

The analysis asked them to react instantly when certain letters flashed briefly on a screen amid a random sequence of other letters.

With respect to the group with good mental health, the groups with either diagnosis lagged noticeably on this standard test of cognitive control.

In the brain scans, the scientists revealed that the women with depression or bipolar disorder had different levels of activity than healthy women in a particular area of the brain called the right posterior parietal cortex.

In those with depression, the activity in this area was higher than in healthy individuals, while in those with bipolar disorder it was lower.

The section where the discrepancies were observed controls “executive function” – activities such as working memory, problem solving and reasoning.