Behavioral lateralization in bipolar disorders: a systematic review

Bipolar disorder (BD) is often seen as a bridge between schizophrenia and depression in terms of symptomatology and etiology. Interestingly, hemispheric asymmetries as well as behavioral lateralization are shifted towards a tendency of left-side or mixed-side bias in schizophrenia whereas no shift is observed in subjects with depression. Given the role of BD with both, (hypo)manic and depressive episodes, investigating hemispheric asymmetries in subjects with BD is an interesting objective.

A systematic review of studies including measures of behavioral lateralization in the form of handedness, footedness, eyedness, and language lateralization was performed resulting in 25 suitable studies.

A broad variety of methods was used to assess behavioral lateralization, especially for eyedness, footedness, and language lateralization hindering the integration of results. Additionally, for hand preference, studies frequently used different cut-off scores and classification systems. Overall, studies do not support alteration in side preference in BD subjects. Studies focusing on differences in handedness demonstrate that subjects show equal rates of right- and non-right-handedness as the general population. Few studies focusing on manic episodes point towards increased left-side bias in ear and eye dominance, but the small sample sizes and conflicting results warrant further investigation.

The results reinforce that some disorders, such as BD, should not be treated as a homogenous group but sub-groups should be analyzed within the patient's population. Particularly, clinical implications resulting from neuroimaging studies highlight the need to study hemispheric asymmetries given that they may be important to consider for brain stimulation protocols.