TY - JOUR
T1 - The role of intrinsic brain functional connectivity in vulnerability and resilience to bipolar disorder
AU - Doucet, Gaelle E.
AU - Bassett, Danielle S.
AU - Yao, Nailin
AU - Glahn, David C.
AU - Frangou, Sophia
N1 - Funding Information:
Dr. Frangou received support from NIH grant R01 MH104284-01A1. Dr. Glahn received support from NIH grant R01 MH080912. Dr. Bassett acknowledges support from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the Army Research Laboratory and the Army Research Office through contracts W911NF-10-2-0022 and W911NF-14-1-0679, NIMH grant 2R01-DC-009209-11, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development grant 1R01HD086888-01, the Office of Naval Research, and grants BCS-1441502, BCS-1430087, and PHY-1554488 from the National Science Foundation.
PY - 2017/12/1
Y1 - 2017/12/1
N2 - Objective: Bipolar disorder is a heritable disorder characterized by mood dysregulation associated with brain functional dysconnectivity. Previous research has focused on the detection of risk- and disease-associated dysconnectivity in individuals with bipolar disorder and their first-degree relatives. The present study seeks to identify adaptive brain connectivity features associated with resilience, defined here as avoidance of illness or delayed illness onset in unaffected siblings of patients with bipolar disorder. Method: Graph theoretical methods were used to examine global and regional brain network topology in head-motion-corrected resting-state functional MRI data acquired from 78 patients with bipolar disorder, 64 unaffected siblings, and 41 healthy volunteers. Results: Global network properties were preserved in patients and their siblings while both groups showed reductions in the cohesiveness of the sensorimotor network. In the patient group, these sensorimotor network abnormalities were coupled with reduced integration of core default mode network regions in the ventromedial cortex and hippocampus. Conversely, integration of the default mode network was increased in the sibling group compared with both the patient group and the healthy volunteer group. Conclusions: The authors found that trait-related vulnerability to bipolar disorder was associated with reduced resting-state cohesiveness of the sensorimotor network in patients with bipolar disorder. However, integration of the default mode network emerged as a key feature differentiating disease expression and resilience between the patients and their siblings. This is indicative of the presence of neural mechanisms that may promote resilience, or at least delay illness onset.
AB - Objective: Bipolar disorder is a heritable disorder characterized by mood dysregulation associated with brain functional dysconnectivity. Previous research has focused on the detection of risk- and disease-associated dysconnectivity in individuals with bipolar disorder and their first-degree relatives. The present study seeks to identify adaptive brain connectivity features associated with resilience, defined here as avoidance of illness or delayed illness onset in unaffected siblings of patients with bipolar disorder. Method: Graph theoretical methods were used to examine global and regional brain network topology in head-motion-corrected resting-state functional MRI data acquired from 78 patients with bipolar disorder, 64 unaffected siblings, and 41 healthy volunteers. Results: Global network properties were preserved in patients and their siblings while both groups showed reductions in the cohesiveness of the sensorimotor network. In the patient group, these sensorimotor network abnormalities were coupled with reduced integration of core default mode network regions in the ventromedial cortex and hippocampus. Conversely, integration of the default mode network was increased in the sibling group compared with both the patient group and the healthy volunteer group. Conclusions: The authors found that trait-related vulnerability to bipolar disorder was associated with reduced resting-state cohesiveness of the sensorimotor network in patients with bipolar disorder. However, integration of the default mode network emerged as a key feature differentiating disease expression and resilience between the patients and their siblings. This is indicative of the presence of neural mechanisms that may promote resilience, or at least delay illness onset.
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U2 - 10.1176/appi.ajp.2017.17010095
DO - 10.1176/appi.ajp.2017.17010095
M3 - Article
C2 - 28817956
AN - SCOPUS:85036611340
VL - 174
SP - 1214
EP - 1222
JO - American Journal of Psychiatry
JF - American Journal of Psychiatry
SN - 0002-953X
IS - 12
ER -