A circuit-based framework for depression: Reshaping the pathological attractor

Major depressive disorder (MDD) is increasingly tractable through the frameworks of circuit neuroscience. We conceptualize MDD as a pathological attractor, representing a stable and self-reinforcing network configuration orchestrated by maladaptive plasticity. This review synthesizes evidence demonstrating that the depressive state emerges from a hierarchical failure of top-down prefrontal control, which permits pathological stabilization within subcortical hubs to drive anhedonia and motivational deficits. Reinterpreting current findings through a dynamical lens reveals how these anomalies reflect biased and rigid network patterns. This framework reframes therapeutic intervention as a strategy to reshape the functional landscape of the brain, where rapid-acting pharmacology and precision neuromodulation facilitate recovery by guiding neural trajectories toward adaptive configurations. Future directions involve integrating individualized circuit fingerprinting with adaptive closed-loop systems to move psychiatry toward a predictive science grounded in the kinetic steering of global network dynamics.