Improved estimation of the risk of manic relapse by combining clinical and brain scan data.

Introduction: Estimating the risk of manic relapse could help the psychiatrist individually adjust the treatment to the risk. Some authors have attempted to estimate this risk from baseline clinical data. Still, no studies have assessed whether the estimation could improve by adding structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data.

Brain correlates of impaired goal management in bipolar mania.

Background: Although executive impairment has been reported in mania, its brain functional correlates have been relatively little studied. This study examined goal management, believed to be more closely related to executive impairment in daily life than other executive tasks, using a novel functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) paradigm in patients in this illness phase.

Methods: Twenty-one currently manic patients with bipolar disorder and 30 matched healthy controls were scanned while performing the Computerized Multiple Elements Test (CMET).

Structural abnormality in schizophrenia versus bipolar disorder: A whole brain cortical thickness, surface area, volume and gyrification analyses.

Objectives: The profiles of cortical abnormalities in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, and how far they resemble each other, have only been studied to a limited extent. The aim of this study was to identify and compare the changes in cortical morphology associated with these pathologies.

Methods: A total of 384 subjects, including 128 patients with schizophrenia, 128 patients with bipolar disorder and 127 sex-age-matched healthy subjects, were examined using cortical surface-based morphology.

Longitudinal brain functional changes between mania and euthymia in bipolar disorder.

Objectives: While widespread cortical and subcortical brain functional abnormalities have been found in bipolar disorder, the changes that take place between illness phases and recovery are less clearly documented. Only a small number of longitudinal studies of manic patients, in particular, have been carried out.

Methods: Twenty-six bipolar patients underwent fMRI during performance of the n-back working memory task when manic and again after recovery.

Evaluation of machine learning algorithms and structural features for optimal MRI-based diagnostic prediction in psychosis.

A relatively large number of studies have investigated the power of structural magnetic resonance imaging (sMRI) data to discriminate patients with schizophrenia from healthy controls. However, very few of them have also included patients with bipolar disorder, allowing the clinically relevant discrimination between both psychotic diagnostics. To assess the efficacy of sMRI data for diagnostic prediction in psychosis we objectively evaluated the discriminative power of a wide range of commonly used machine learning algorithms (ridge, lasso, elastic net and L0 norm regularized logistic regressions, a support vector classifier, regularized discriminant analysis, random forests and a Gaussian process classifier) on main sMRI features including grey and white matter voxel-based morphometry (VBM), vertex-based cortical thickness and volume, region of interest volumetric measures and wavelet-based morphometry (WBM) maps.

Structural and Functional Brain Correlates of Cognitive Impairment in Euthymic Patients with Bipolar Disorder.

Introduction: Cognitive impairment in the euthymic phase is a well-established finding in bipolar disorder. However, its brain structural and/or functional correlates are uncertain.

Methods: Thirty-three euthymic bipolar patients with preserved memory and executive function and 28 euthymic bipolar patients with significant memory and/or executive impairment, as defined using two test batteries, the Rivermead Behavioural Memory Test (RBMT) and the Behavioural Assessment of the Dysexecutive Syndrome (BADS), plus 28 healthy controls underwent structural MRI using voxel-based morphometry (VBM).

Prevalence of cavum vergae in psychosis and mood spectrum disorders.

Background: Midline brain abnormalities might increase susceptibility to both first-episode and chronic mental disorder. Evidence of cavum vergae (CV) abnormality in mental disorders is scarce.

Methods: The presence of CV was assessed by a researcher blind to clinical information in a cross-disorder sample of 639 patients with mood and psychotic disorders and in 223 healthy controls.

Brain functional changes across the different phases of bipolar disorder.

Background: Little is known about how functional imaging changes in bipolar disorder relate to different phases of the illness.

Aims: To compare cognitive task activation in participants with bipolar disorder examined in different phases of illness.

Method: Participants with bipolar disorder in mania (n = 38), depression (n = 38) and euthymia (n = 38), as well as healthy controls (n = 38), underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging during performance of the n-back working memory task.

Bipolar depressed patients show both failure to activate and failure to de-activate during performance of a working memory task.

Background: Bipolar depression has been found to be associated with changes in prefrontal cortex activity during performance of cognitive tasks. However, the role of task-related de-activations has been little investigated.

Method: Forty-one bipolar depressed patients and 41 matched normal controls underwent fMRI scanning while performing baseline, 1-back and 2-back versions of the n-back task.

Failure of de-activation in the medial frontal cortex in mania: evidence for default mode network dysfunction in the disorder.

Objectives: Manic patients have been found to show reduced activation in the prefrontal cortex and other regions during performance of cognitive tasks. However, little is known about de-activations associated with the disorder. This study aimed to examine, at the whole-brain level, abnormal patterns of task-related activation and de-activation during performance of a working memory task.