Stress definitely leads to anxiety just like isolation makes way for depression.
Psychological and social experiences shape the brain, potentially leading to mental health issues but the underlying mechanisms-how these experiences translate to physiological changes in the brain-remain poorly understood.
Now, psychological scientists may have found a missing link.
“We actually have biomarkers that really are showing links between psychological processes and people’s physiology,” stated Christopher Fagundes, professor of psychological sciences, Rice University.
In a review published in Current Directions in Psychological Science, Fagundes and his colleagues argue that the missing link might be mitochondria, the power house of the cell from school.
Mitochondria are best known as the bean shaped cell organelles that play a vital role in generating energy.
But they are now being recognized for many more roles, including their part in immune signaling, stress responses, and neural functioning.
They are sensitive to environmental changes and social conditions, suggesting stress, loneliness, and trauma may target mitochondria, leading to downstream psychological effects. Alterations in mitochondrial function have been linked to anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), Alzheimer’s disease, and other neurological disorders, as well as physical health outcomes such as cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, and certain cancers.
“The actual cellular machinery that links these experiences to disease really starts at the level of the mitochondria,” said Fagundes, in an interview with the Observer.
“Everything from the things we think of in terms of oxidative stress, to fatigue we feel, to the byproducts that come when stressors get out of control, it really is at the root of that,” he added.
The brain’s high energy demand makes it particularly vulnerable to mitochondrial dysfunction. If mitochondria are less efficient, there is less energy for neurotransmission (transfer of brain signals), affecting processes that support mood regulation and memory.
“A lot of the relationships that we’ve been thinking of-[between] inflammatory processes and these kinds of mental health outcomes-we should look toward alterations in mitochondria being a real mediator or [underlying] mechanism,” said Fagundes.
As of now, few studies have examined the effects of improving social support on mitochondrial function. More research into this and other ways to improve mitochondria resilience-and the various roles mitochondria play in the brain may be the key to better understanding and developing better treatment for a variety of mental and physical disorders.
“We’ve been talking a lot about things like inflammation. It tells us something is happening, but mitochondria help us explain why it’s happening at the cellular level,” Fagundes mentioned before concluding: “If we focus more at the cellular level, we’ll have a much deeper understanding of underlying processes.”
