Anxiety and depression: Your brain may have a warning system

Researchers have identified a signal in the brain that may suppress unwanted memories, which could lead to treatments for OCD, anxiety and depression

By Jason Arunn Murugesu

Humans may have a warning system in the brain that helps suppress unwanted thoughts. Having a better understanding of how this system works could one day lead to treatments for obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) or PTSD.

Michael Anderson at the University of Cambridge and his colleagues analysed the brain scans of 24 Chinese-speaking people as they completed a memory suppression task.

The researchers asked them to memorise 48 pairs of Chinese words. Each person then had electroencephalography (EEG) electrodes attached to their head …