Scientists studied the young rats that were threatened by aggressive and older rats for sometime and found that though the bullied ones were able to generate new nerve cells in key memory regions of the brain, most of those cells later died.
The cell-loss occurred in the hippocampus, an area of the brain which processes learning, memory and emotion. Hippocampus is one of two regions of the brain that is responsible for the development of new nerve cells throughout life, in both rats and humans.
The study, which is published in the latest issue of the Journal of Neuroscience, also linked the loss of nerve cells to the depression and hope to find a better treatment for the depression disease that comes from mood problems.
The Australian quotes Daniel Peterson, a researcher at the Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science in North Chicago, Illinois, who led the study as saying, "If we can keep these new nerve cells alive, we might be able to forestall or prevent the types of depressive symptoms that might normally occur."
Peterson and his colleagues are now finding what role antidepressants might play in rescuing nerve cells. "What we are seeing is the stress is changing the environment. That is what we need to understand now. That will tell us what therapies could be useful to intervene," he added.
