Aberrant activation of the mentalizing brain system during eye gaze discrimination in bipolar disorder

Ivy F Tso; Cynthia Z Burton; Carly A Lasagna; Saige Rutherford; Beier Yao; Scott J Peltier; Timothy D Johnson; Melvin G McInnis; Stephan F Taylor

doi:10.1016/j.pscychresns.2021.111340

Aberrant activation of the mentalizing brain system during eye gaze discrimination in bipolar disorder

Psychiatry Res Neuroimaging. 2021 Sep 30:315:111340. doi: 10.1016/j.pscychresns.2021.111340. Epub 2021 Jul 31.

Authors

Ivy F Tso¹, Cynthia Z Burton², Carly A Lasagna², Saige Rutherford³, Beier Yao⁴, Scott J Peltier⁵, Timothy D Johnson⁶, Melvin G McInnis², Stephan F Taylor²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Psychiatry, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, United States. Electronic address: ivytso@umich.edu.
² Department of Psychiatry, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, United States.
³ Department of Psychiatry, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, United States; Radboud University Medical Centre, Nijmegen, the Netherlands.
⁴ Department of Psychology, Michigan State University, United States.
⁵ Functional MRI Laboratory, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, United States; Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, United States.
⁶ Department of Biostatistics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, United States.

Abstract

Bipolar disorder (BD) is associated with a range of social cognitive deficits. This study investigated the functioning of the mentalizing brain system in BD probed by an eye gaze perception task during fMRI. Compared with healthy controls (n = 21), BD participants (n = 14) showed reduced preferential activation for self-directed gaze discrimination in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and temporo-parietal junction (TPJ), which was associated with poorer cognition/social cognition. Aberrant functions of the mentalizing system should be further investigated as marker of social dysfunction and treatment targets.

Keywords: Bipolar disorder; Social cognition; fMRI.

Publication types

Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

MeSH terms

Bipolar Disorder* / diagnostic imaging
Brain / diagnostic imaging
Brain Mapping
Fixation, Ocular
Humans
Mentalization*

Abstract

Publication types

MeSH terms

Grants and funding