The seasonal duration of daylight influences the number of opioid receptors in the brain. The findings shed new light on a potential mechanism behind seasonal affective disorder.

Seasons have an impact on our emotions and social life. Negative emotions are more subdued in the summer, whereas seasonal affective disorder rates peak during the darker winter months. Opioids regulate both mood and sociability in the brain.

“In the study, we observed that the number of opioid receptors was dependent on the time of the year the brain was imaged. The changes were most prominent in the brain regions that control emotions and sociability. The changes in the opioid receptors caused by the variation in the amount of daylight could be an important factor in seasonal affective disorder,” says Postdoctoral Researcher Lihua Sun from the Turku PET Centre and the University of Turku.

topic:: [[Seasonal Affective Disorder]] tangent:: [[../www/on light and lighting]]

Referred in

-meta.log-2021-02

Seasonal variation in daylight influences brain function