A study by the Stanford Psychology Department has shown that girls’ brains can be rewired to not overreact to negative stimulation, thus preventing at-risk girls from experiencing depressive episodes, according to a Thursday press release. Negative stimulation can cause increased heart rate, blood pressure and cortisol production, which are all factors that can precede a depressive episode.

The research team, led by professor Ian Gotlib and funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, focused on 10- to 14-year-old girls who at-risk for depression because their mothers are depressed or have previously been depressed.

The girls underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) at the Richard M. Lucas Center for Imaging, so that the researchers could observe how much blood flowed to the amygdala region of their brains when they were shown negative images – for example, a photo of an accident.

The researchers then asked the girls to think about positive experiences in order to attempt to dampen the negative response, such as going to the beach or playing with pets.

Participants also completed a “dot-probe task” in which they were shown one of two pairs of faces: a neutral and happy face pair or a neutral and sad face pair. A dot appeared on the computer screen, which the participant then clicked. After clicking, she was led from the negative toward the more positive image in order to train the brain to not overreact to negative stimuli, according to the press release.

Days after the experiments, the girls returned to the Stanford Mood and Anxiety Disorders Laboratory to undergo an induced stress test so that the researchers could measure any change in physiological reaction.

Thus far, the researchers have found that girls react less to stress following the experiments.

— Alice Phillips