Face emotion labeling deficits in children with bipolar disorder and severe mood dysregulation.

Children with narrow phenotype bipolar disorder (NP-BD; i.e., history of at least one hypomanic or manic episode with euphoric mood) are deficient when labeling face emotions.

Attention bias to threat faces in children with bipolar disorder and comorbid lifetime anxiety disorders.

Background: Although comorbid anxiety disorders are common in children with bipolar disorder (BD), it is unclear how this comorbidity impacts the pathophysiology of the illness.

Methods: Pediatric BD with lifetime anxiety (BD+ANX, n = 20), BD without lifetime anxiety (BD-ANX, n = 11), and controls (n = 14) were administered the visual-probe paradigm, which assesses attention bias to threat faces.

Results: Bipolar disorder +ANX demonstrated a stronger bias toward threat relative to BD-ANX and controls; the latter two did not differ from each other.

Different psychophysiological and behavioral responses elicited by frustration in pediatric bipolar disorder and severe mood dysregulation.

Objective: Researchers disagree as to whether irritability is a diagnostic indicator for pediatric mania in bipolar disorder. The authors compared the behavioral and psychophysiological correlates of irritability among children with severe mood dysregulation (i.e.

Prevalence, clinical correlates, and longitudinal course of severe mood dysregulation in children.

Background: Controversy concerning the diagnosis of pediatric bipolar disorder (BD) has focused attention on children with chronic irritability and hyperarousal. This syndrome has been called the "broad BD phenotype" or severe mood dysregulation (SMD). This study examines prevalence, concurrent Axis I diagnoses, and longitudinal outcome of SMD in an epidemiologic sample.

Deficits in social cognition and response flexibility in pediatric bipolar disorder.

Objective: Little is known about neuropsychological and social-cognitive function in patients with pediatric bipolar disorder. Identification of specific deficits and strengths that characterize pediatric bipolar disorder would facilitate advances in diagnosis, treatment, and research on pathophysiology. The purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that youths with bipolar disorder would perform more poorly than matched healthy comparison subjects on measures of social cognition, motor inhibition, and response flexibility.

Electrophysiological activity underlying inhibitory control processes in normal adults.

In a recent ERP study of inhibitory control using the Stop-Signal Task [Pliszka, S., Liotti, M., Woldorff, M.

The impact of reward, punishment, and frustration on attention in pediatric bipolar disorder.

Background: Theories in affective neuroscience suggest that mood disorders involve perturbations in attention-emotion interactions. We tested the hypothesis that frustration adversely impacts attention and behavior in children with bipolar disorder (BPD).

Methods: Thirty-five children with BPD and 26 normal control subjects completed: 1) a Posner attention task with feedback but no contingencies; 2) an affective Posner with contingencies; and 3) an affective Posner that used rigged feedback to induce frustration.