Research in mice sheds light on how thyroid hormone alters wiring in the brain. Findings reveal that thyroid hormone syncs up the brain and body to drive exploratory behavior. Researchers say their work could illuminate new treatments for certain psychiatric conditions.
Thyroid hormone plays a key role in regulating a range of physiologic functions, including metabolism, temperature, heart rate, and growth. It accomplishes this impressive array of activities by interacting with almost every organ system in the body. Yet despite a long history of research on how thyroid hormone influences different organs, its effects on arguably the most crucial organ -- the brain -- have remained shrouded in mystery.
The findings also help elucidate how low levels of the hormone could lead to depressive states marked by a low desire to explore, while too much could precipitate manic states characterized by an extreme desire for exploration. Thus, the researchers see their work as an important step toward understanding how aberrant levels of thyroid hormone could contribute to certain psychiatric conditions.
"What is quite remarkable is that in the adult brain, the thyroid hormone receptor is not only in the hypothalamus, but it's basically everywhere," Hochbaum said. To address this question, the researchers turned to previously published field studies that observed behavior in the wild and measured thyroid hormone of lemurs, squirrel monkeys, and other mammals. The research revealed that hormone levels, and in turn metabolic rates, tended to be higher in warmer seasons when food and resources were more abundant -- and animals explored more during those seasons.
Thyroid Disease Menopause Prostate Cancer Neuroscience Brain Injury Brain-Computer Interfaces Intelligence
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