Altered striatal functional connectivity and structural dysconnectivity in individuals with bipolar disorder: A resting state magnetic resonance imaging study

ObjectiveBipolar disorder (BD) is a mood swing illness characterized by episodes ranging from depressive lows to manic highs. Although the specific origin of BD is unknown, genetics, environment, and changes in brain structure and chemistry may all have a role. Through magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) evaluations, this study looked into functional abnormalities involving the striatum between BD group and healthy controls (HC), compared the whole-brain gray matter (GM) morphological patterns between the groups and see whether functional connectivity has its underlying structural basis. Materials and methodsWe applied sliding windows to functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data from 49 BD patients and 44 HCs to generate temporal correlations maps to determine strength and variability of the striatum-to-whole-brain-network functional connectivity (FC) in each window whilst also employing voxel-based morphometry (VBM) to high-resolution structural MRI data to uncover structural differences between the groups. ResultsOur analyses revealed increased striatal connectivity in three consecutive windows 69, 70, and 71 (180, 182, and 184 s) in individuals with BD (p < 0.05; Bonferroni corrected) in fMRI images. Moreover, the VBM findings of structural images showed gray matter (GM) deficits in the left precentral gyrus and middle frontal gyrus of the BD patients (p = 0.001, uncorrected) when compared to HCs. Variability of striatal connectivity did not reveal significant differences between the groups. ConclusionThese findings revealed that BD was associated with a weakening of the precentral gyrus and middle frontal gyrus, also implying that bipolar illness may be linked to striatal functional brain alterations.

Automated summary

This study investigated functional abnormalities in the striatum among individuals with bipolar disorder (BD) compared to healthy controls (HC) using MRI evaluations. The findings revealed increased striatal connectivity in BD patients, along with gray matter deficits in specific brain regions. These results suggest that BD may be associated with both structural and functional brain alterations.