Brain function and structure in bipolar euthymia

描述(由申请人提供)：本提案的目标是评估被诊断为I型双相情感障碍(躁狂发作病史)且目前情绪良好的患者的大脑结构和功能异常。患者和健康志愿者将接受结构和功能磁共振成像。功能成像将在一项神经心理学任务的执行过程中进行，该任务已知激活情绪调节系统的已知组成部分腹侧前额叶皮质和杏仁核。先进的基于表面的处理算法将用于高分辨率结构图像，以测量额叶皮质和其他大脑区域的灰质厚度。然后，将使用相关分析来评估沿皮质的每个点的皮质厚度与FMR信号强度之间的关系。由于大脑皮质的前额腹侧区域向杏仁核发出直接的抑制投射，因此也将研究前额叶皮质变薄与杏仁核反应水平之间的关系。这些研究是首次尝试描述双相情感障碍患者额叶皮质的厚度，以及该区域的结构异常如何影响额叶边缘情绪调节回路的功能。拟议的实验结果将有助于推进我们对双相情感障碍的病理生理学的理解，并识别使个人容易出现情绪极端易感性的表型大脑异常。未来的研究将检查这些大脑异常的出现和发展以及药物和治疗的相关影响，这将对患者的预后产生深远的影响。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The goal of this proposal is to assess abnormalities in brain structure and function in patients diagnosed with type I bipolar disorder (history of manic episode) who are currently euthymic. Patients and healthy volunteers will undergo structural and functional magnetic resonance imaging. Functional imaging will take place during the performance of a neuropsychological task known to activate ventral prefrontal cortex and amygdala, known components of the emotion regulatory system. Advanced surface based processing algorithms will be used on high resolution structural images to measure gray matter thickness in frontal cortex and other brain regions. A correlation analysis will then be used to assess, at every point along the cortex, the relationship between cortical thickness and fMR signal intensity. Because ventral frontal regions of cortex send direct inhibitory projections to the amygdala, the relationship between ventral prefrontal cortical thinning and the response level of the amygdala will also be examined. These studies represent the first attempt at characterizing the thickness of the frontal cortex in bipolar disorder and how structural abnormalities in this region impact functioning of fronto-limbic mood regulatory circuits. Results from the proposed experiments will help to advance our understanding of the pathophysiology of bipolar disorder and identify phenotypic brain abnormalities that predispose an individual to extreme liabilities in mood. Future studies that examine the emergence and progression of these brain abnormalities and the associated impact of medications and treatments will serve to have profound prognostic consequences for patients.