The neural basis of mood dysregulation in bipolar disorder

Bipolar disorder is characterised by affective instability and mood dysregulation. Understanding of the neural mechanism underlying this remains limited, however. Here, findings will be described from studies that have employed neuroimaging techniques to measure neural responses to emotionally salient stimuli in individuals with the disorder. These findings will be discussed in relation to a theoretical framework previously proposed for understanding the separate cognitive processes underlying emotion perception to allow the formulation of a postulated neural mechanism for the mood dysregulation in bipolar disorder.