Fear Circuit Flares as Bipolar Youth Misread Faces

[Guest guest]

hmmm...so do people with mercury.

>

> Youth with bipolar disorder misread facial expressions as hostile and

> show heightened neural reactions when they focus on emotional aspects

> of neutral faces, researchers at the National Institutes of Health's

> (NIH) National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) have discovered. The

> study provides some of the first clues to the underlying workings of

> the episodes of mania and depression that disrupt friendships,

school,

> and family life in up to one percent of children....

>

> http://www.scienceblog.com/cms/fear-circuit-flares-as-bipolar-youth-

misread-faces-10694.html

>

[Guest guest]

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Fear Circuit Flares as Bipolar Youth Misread Faces

Youth with bipolar disorder misread facial expressions as hostile and show

heightened neural reactions when they focus on emotional aspects of neutral

faces, researchers at the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) National

Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) have discovered. The study provides some

of the first clues to the underlying workings of the episodes of mania and

depression that disrupt friendships, school, and family life in up to one

percent of children.

Brain scans showed that the left amygdala, a fear hub, and related

structures, activated more in youth with the disorder than in healthy youth

when asked to rate the hostility of an emotionally neutral face, as opposed

to a non-emotional feature, such as nose width. The more patients

misinterpreted the faces as hostile, the more their amygdala flared. Such a

face-processing deficit could help account for the poor social skills,

aggression, and irritability that characterizes the disorder in children,

suggest Drs. Ellen Leibenluft, n Rich, Pine, NIMH Mood and

Anxiety Disorders Program, and colleagues, who report on their findings May

29, 2006 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

“Since children seem to have a more severe form of the disorder, they may

provide a clearer window into the underlying illness process than adult

onset cases,” explained Leibenluft. “Our results suggest that children with

bipolar disorder see emotion where other people don’t. Our results also

suggest that bipolar disorder likely stems from impaired development of

specific brain circuits, as is thought to occur in schizophrenia and other

mental illnesses.”

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) studies have shown that, unlike in adults

with the illness, the amygdala is consistently smaller in bipolar children

than in healthy age-mates. Also, the NIMH researchers had found earlier that

bipolar children falter at identifying facial emotion and have difficulty

regulating their attention when frustrated.

Using functional MRI, the researchers measured brain activity in 22 bipolar

youth and 21 healthy subjects while they rated faces. In addition to the

amygdala, other parts of the emotion-regulating circuit — nucleus accumbens,

putamen, and left prefrontal cortex — were also hyperactive in patients,

compared to healthy peers, during the emotional tasks. Patients rated

themselves as more afraid, and they rated the faces as more hostile,

compared to healthy peers. The groups did not differ on nose width ratings,

confirming that the differences were specific to perceiving emotional

processes.

“By finding a brain imaging trait that may be more selective than current

clinical criteria, this line of research might help us refine our definition

of pediatric bipolar disorder,” said NIMH Director Insel, M.D. “The

researchers are following-up with imaging studies of children with bipolar

spectrum disorders and healthy children who are at genetic risk for

developing the disorder to see if they also have the same amygdala

over-activation.”

Also participating in the study were: Dr. Deborah Vinton, Dr.

Hommer, Dr. Fromm, Berghorst, NIMH; Dr. Roxann Roberson-Nay,

Virginia Commonwealth University; Dr. McClure, Georgia State

University.

HYPERLINK

" outbind://129-00000000A3B06D04BBADBC4C956767696862B36664324900/http://www.n

ih.gov/news/pr/may2006/images/nimh-29.jpg " The left amygdala and related

structures (yellow area where lines intersect) are part of an

emotion-regulating brain circuit where children with bipolar disorder showed

greater activation than controls when rating their fear of neutral faces.

Structural MRI image with functional MRI data superimposed.

The left amygdala and related structures (yellow area where lines intersect)

are part of an emotion-regulating brain circuit where children with bipolar

disorder showed greater activation than controls when rating their fear of

neutral faces. Structural MRI image with functional MRI data superimposed.

Source: NIMH Mood and Anxiety Disorders Program

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Institutes of Health (NIH), the Federal Government's primary agency for

biomedical and behavioral research. NIH is a component of the U.S.

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research, and it investigates the causes, treatments, and cures for both

common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs,

visit HYPERLINK " http://www.nih.gov/ " www.nih.gov.

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