A large-scale study conducted by researchers from the University of Iowa Health Care identified two distinct brain networks that link the location of brain injury to levels of depression in patients following the injury. The study suggested that these brain networks are potential targets for neuromodulation therapies to treat depression.

The study, published in the journal Brain, enrolled 526 patients. In the study, brain imaging scans and depression scores of patients were analyzed who had acquired localized areas of brain injury from a stroke or other type of traumatic brain injury.

A detailed statistical analysis of the data collected from patients allowed the researchers to correlate the brain lesion locations with levels of depression experienced by the patients in the months following the brain injury.

The researchers found that the two network regions were strongly associated with increased depression. Furthermore, these regions coincided with the nodes of the so-called salience network, which is involved in task reorientation, attention, and emotion processing. The researchers also discovered that the risk and resilience regions were not randomly scattered within the brain, and the patients whose brain lesions did not fall within the two new networks had an average depression score following their brain injury. 

(Source: https://theprint.in/science/distinct-brain-networks-related-to-risk-and-resilience-in-depression-identified-during-study/1167137/ )