INVESTIGATION OF WHITE MATTER INTEGRITY IN BIPOLAR DISORDER

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This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. While there is evidence for signal hyperintensities in the brain white matter of individuals with bipolar disorder, to our knowledge there has been no investigation of the white matter connecting regions involved in emotional processing in bipolar disorder. In this study, we propose to investigate, through the use of diffusion tensor imaging possible group differences between patients with bipolar disorder and healthy controls in the water self-diffusion of brain white matter tracts, and structural group differences in the orbital frontal lobe and amygdala. It is hypothesized that compared to healthy volunteers, patients will have lower fractional anisotropy in the uncinate fasciculus, lower orbital frontal N-accetyl-aspartate, and structural alterations in the orbital frontal lobe and amygdala.