Neural response during explicit and implicit face processing varies developmentally in bipolar disorder.

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Psychiatry
• Developmental Psychology

Background:

• Bipolar disorder (BD) affects both children and adults, presenting with challenges in recognizing facial emotions and altered neural responses.
• Direct comparisons between pediatric and adult BD populations are limited, hindering understanding of BD's developmental course.

Purpose of the Study:

• To directly compare face emotion processing and neural circuitry function in children and adults with BD versus healthy controls.
• To investigate the developmental trajectory of neural abnormalities associated with BD.

Main Methods:

• Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to compare 41 individuals with BD (19 children, 22 adults) and 44 healthy controls (25 children, 19 adults).
• Participants performed explicit and implicit judgments on angry and happy face morphs varying in emotional intensity.

Main Results:

• Individuals with BD, regardless of age, demonstrated a failure to recruit the amygdala in response to increasing anger intensity.
• Subgenual anterior cingulate modulation deficits were present in both child and adult BD patients, linked to implicit and explicit processing, respectively.
• The observed amygdala response difference was not significant in euthymic youth or those without ADHD, possibly due to reduced statistical power.

Conclusions:

• Face emotion labeling deficits and associated neural circuitry dysfunction, particularly involving the amygdala and subgenual anterior cingulate, are present in bipolar disorder across development.
• These abnormalities may represent potential neuroimaging biomarkers for BD, detectable from childhood through adulthood.