The science of mental health - with Camilla Nord

How does the body affect our brain, and vice versa? Can exercise, psychedelics, or the gut biome improve your mental health? Find out with neuroscientist Camilla Nord.

This talk was recorded at the Ri on 4 March 2024.

In this talk, Camilla reframes mental health as an intricate, automated process that is different for all of us, relying on the way our bodily processes and our expectations of the world interact in our brains. She explains how our brain uses dopamine to learn what to expect, and how that can change the way we feel day to day. She looks at a variety of treatments, from therapy and medication to recreational drugs and electrical brain stimulation, to show how they work - and why they sometimes don't.

00:00 What is mental health?
7:03 Dopamine, the brain’s learning system and expectations
16:00 The link between our bodies and brains
24:42 How do anti-depressants and therapy work?
30:43 Psychedelics and the placebo effect
33:01 Bodily treatments for mental health
33:25 Anti-inflammatory drugs for depression
34:36 Is exercise a panacea for treating mental health?
37:16 The role of the gut microbiome
39:06 Are we in a mental health crisis?

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Camilla Nord leads the Mental Health Neuroscience Lab at the University of Cambridge. Her lab explores the brain, body, and cognitive changes that drive mental health and disorder. Her lab’s s aim is to translate insights from neuroscience into improved treatments for mental health conditions, whether that’s by making better use of our current treatment arsenal by targeting treatments to personalised brain or cognitive profiles, or inventing novel, neuroscience-based treatments that might be better able to treat disabling symptoms of mental health conditions.

Camilla was named a Rising Star by the US Association for Psychological Science, received the Young Scientist Award from the European Society of Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, and has been awarded over £14 million in research funding, including from Wellcome and the Medical Research Council (MRC). Her work has been widely featured in the media, including in the Sunday Times, BBC’s The Naked Scientist, and the New Statesman. Her first book, The Balanced Brain (Allen Lane) was named one of the FT’s ‘Best books of the year’ in 2023.

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[Neilhuny]

I've watched dozens, perhaps hundreds of RI lectures and this has immediately gone to the top of my informative and thought provoking league. Camilla Nord is, imo, a truly great scientist, lecturer, explainer of knowledge. I think her name and work will be known for centuries

[helendownie]

Lack of love and care in our world contributes to many mental health problems .

[RavenCelestia]

Ms. Nord has great enunciation and a wonderful voice! I would love to hear more lectures from her.

[ea_]

One of the biggest culprits behind our "unhappiness" is the tendency to compare ourselves to others—especially to those who seem to have it all: more wealth, beauty, health, you name it. The more we engage with content featuring these seemingly perfect lives (rich, beautiful, glamorous folks), the more we end up seeing them. Why? Because of the recommender algorithms used by social media platforms. It's time to call for smarter, more psychologically aware recommender systems on social media. Systems that consider our mental well-being and not just our clicks. This is in pandemic proportions even drives some teens to (fill in the blanks).

[xlntnrg]

The silver bullet for mental and physical health is the mind learning how to manage itself in the most constructive way.

[CCC]

I think a lot of us forget that giving can be one of the most powerful things we can not only do for others but for ourselves

[janycebrown]

Stress caused me to bleed internally! I spent a week in the hospital, where they gave me iron to recover, and they clamped the bleeding that was inside of my stomach.
Because I was in the hospital, I caught C Diff bacteria!
I ended up in a C Diff study in Canada, and to make a long story short, I received a FMT ( fecal microflora transplant)
I had a extremely traumatic childhood, and I have suffered from depression since I was 8 years old. I am now 57, and for the first time in my life I am no longer depressed! The FMT I received has changed my pe

[JonSnowIII]

27:43 is where people’s brain take them on different paths in life.

Your perception/processing of an external input or situation if you like is automated. If you have it, you can’t Not have those thoughts. And when you’re either on a good antidepressant or have fixed your issues some other way, it’s like entering a secret easy life paradise.

Your brain either doesn’t perceive things as automatically negative, or if something less great happens, your brain just kinda process that information, says “that’s a big suck…” and then your brain says “Well, let’s move on and focus on other things now”.

And sometimes, you actually notice how the big cares you had just aren’t there anymore. You’re not emotionally blunt. But you don’t linger in the dark forever. It’s wonderful.

[Lahorca]

This is the best class on mental health I've seen on YouTube since Dr. Sapolsky's talk on Stanford

[BananthahallyVijay]

Great to listen to this. Quite apt words making up the talk and an excellent speaker. 🎉

[sengsoipomoung-lejr]

Thanku for giving this awareness! I am grateful to you!

[tpot]

Wonderful talk by an excellent communicator. I also love your outfit, Ms Nord!❤️

[cienciabit]

Really interesting. I have missed some words about the role of neurogenesis in mental health. Could it be neurogenesis the effect of antidepressants and this is why they need several weeks to work? Other possibility could be that antidepressants worked as kind of "automatic meditation" so they reduce rumination circuits, something similar to what you said, but not only changing (improving) the perception, but also braking a bit the memory. Memoristic study on antidepressants is harder so it is possible they help to stop the brain from bad feedback that leads to anxiety and depression. Thank you very much for your great lecture.

[kinngrimm]

Thank you RI for your ongoing efforts to englighten us.

I guess you have similar sayings in the Uk, here in germany we say "healthy body, healthy mind" as a reminder we can change both equally to influence each other. Science playing catch up with old rooted wisdom is a touch funny, but still good to see as we therefor now know more about the how and why.

[macbuff]

I've battled severe depression and anxiety for half my life as a result of childhood trauma.

It messes with everything. I've managed to sabotage my life and I've had thoughts of ending it on multiple occasions. The scariest part is the loss of control and identity. And yes, pain and depression go hand in hand. I speak from experience

Depression takes away one's ability to feel happy. Ironically, it makes one also afraid of happiness because you know how fleeting it can be. I sabotaged the things and relationships I always yearned for

[Haidar-Philosophy]

Her theory on how anti depressants work is interesting. The key idea is that the medication allows cognitive space to think properly which then allows your mood to improve. This might also explain why talk therapy is effective, as Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) is a form of corrective cognition. This theory (as I understand it) might mean that once you have “cognitive space” or room to breathe, out of the survival state, then once can read books, engage with positive influences and effectively re-wire the brain to effect mood. However, if you’ve face multiple crises in your life, that rebuilding process requires a lot more soul searching and understanding why suffering exists. But that’s the journey. The longer you avoid that soul searching, the more your delay your full recovery. Thoughts have power, they affect your mood.

[James-ipzk]

Excercise, movement is our default mode, sedentarism is the pathology. So excercise is not therapy, is homeostasis. Modern is life almost enterily the problem, we think is normal because almost everybody is under it: poor food, lost of connection, emotional suppression, dopamine inequality between real and digital life, bad parenting and so on. We have a limit for adaptation, we have move from homeostasis to alostasis, the damage is brutal

[seanivore]

Yes more detailed long things that I won’t have the time / focus to read, but fully enjoyed listening to that while working just now

[Thatsaspicymeatball]

Something I've sadly realised in the last year is basically I am never truly happy, and I don't think I've never been in my life. Ok maybe when I was a kid. I get momentarily 'fake happy' when I'm planning something maybe. I sort of borrow a splash of happiness from the future, but I never really get it back. I am always very aware of the fact I SHOULD be happy. I sit there by the pool in the sunshine on holiday, looking at the blue sky and knowing that absolutely everything around me should mean that I am totally peaceful and happy right now. But it's all just grey and beige.

[darkflip]

Ideas of love, attitudes of love in the mind :)