Aberrant brain network topology in fronto-limbic circuitry differentiates euthymic bipolar disorder from recurrent major depressive disorder.

Introduction: Previous studies have established graph theoretical analysis of functional network connectivity (FNC) as a potential tool to detect neurobiological underpinnings of psychiatric disorders. Despite the promising outcomes in studies that examined FNC aberrancies in bipolar disorder (BD) and major depressive disorder (MDD), there is still a lack of research comparing both mood disorders, especially in a nondepressed state. In this study, we used graph theoretical network analysis to compare brain network properties of euthymic BD, euthymic MDD and healthy controls (HC) to evaluate whether these groups showed distinct features in FNC.

Intensified emotion perception in depression: Differences in physiological arousal and subjective perceptions.

People suffering from depression perceive themselves and their surroundings as more negative than healthy ones. An explanation might be that depressed individuals experience negative information as more stressful than non-depressed subjects and, consequently, respond in an amplified manner on a subjective and physiological level. To test this proposition, we presented 41 patients with recurrent depressive episodes and 42 controls with stimuli from the International Affective Picture System split into three valence categories while different parameters of physiological arousal (e.