Harvard Medical School research says thyroid hormone changes brain wiring

Scientists at Harvard Medical School conducted research on mice and found new insights into the relationship between the thyroid and the brain. They found that in the research, mammals' brain wiring gets changed by the thyroid hormone.

Study in US: It is known that thyroid hormone has a crucial role in regulating various body functions including temperature, metabolism, growth and heart rate. Now, a new study by Harvard Medical School has also found its effect on brain functioning.

The new research claimed that the thyroid hormone changes brain wiring. It found that the thyroid hormone coordinates the brain and body to produce exploratory behaviour.

Daniel Hochbaum, the lead author and research fellow in neurobiology at the Blavatnik Institute at HMS said, “It’s well known that thyroid hormone modulates metabolism, and now we’ve shown that it also modulates exploratory behaviours through direct action on the brain."

It can enhance scientists' understanding of thyroid hormone's link with psychiatric conditions

The findings can be extremely useful in increasing understanding of how changed thyroid levels can lead to different psychiatric conditions. They found that low levels of thyroid hormone lead to depression where people have less desire to explore.

Daniel Hochbaum said, "I was really surprised to see that thyroid hormone had large psychiatric effects."

The study saw that too much metabolic speed leads to mania and too little metabolism can lead to depression.

Sabatini, senior author of the new study and director of Kempner Institute for the Study of Natural and Artificial Intelligence at Harvard University commented, “Why thyroid hormone changes behaviour has been something that’s puzzled me ever since medical school. It was not clear why this hormone should even enter the brain at all.”

Scientists are now planning to study this connection in people who experienced the 2024 tsunami in Indonesia. They want to find out whether the psychological trauma of the tsunami has made changes to thyroid hormones.

“The thought is that these conditions are also shaping exploratory activity, so perhaps manipulating thyroid hormone to change brain circuits will reveal relevant points of entry for treatment,” Hochbaum said.

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