Abnormal frontal cortex white matter connections in bipolar disorder: A DTI tractography study

• Published in: Journal of affective disorders 2011-06, Vol.131 (1), p.299-306
• Main Authors: Lin, Fuchun, Weng, Shenhong, Xie, Baojun, Wu, Guangyao, Lei, Hao
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adult; Adult and adolescent clinical studies; Biological and medical sciences; Bipolar affective disorder; Bipolar disorder; Bipolar Disorder - pathology; Bipolar disorders; Case-Control Studies; Circuits; Cortex; Diffusion Tensor Imaging; DTI tractography; Female; Fiber tracts; Fractional anisotropy; Frontal cortex; Frontal Lobe - pathology; Humans; Male; Medical sciences; Mood disorders; Neural Pathways - pathology; Neuropathology; Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Radiation
• ISSN: 0165-0327; 1573-2517
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jad.2010.12.018

Abstract Objective In bipolar disorder, white matter abnormalities have been reported with region-of-interest and voxel-based methods; however, deficits in specific white matter tracts cannot be localized by these methods. Therefore, in this study, we aimed to investigate the white matter tracts that mediate connectivity of the frontal cortex using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) tractography. Methods Eighteen patients with bipolar disorder and sixteen age- and gender-matched healthy subjects underwent DTI examinations. Frontal cortex white matter tracts, including the anterior thalamic radiation (ATR), uncinate fasciculus (UF), superior longitudinal fasciculus (SLF), cingulum, and inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus (IFO) were reconstructed by DTI tractography, and we calculated the mean fractional anisotropy (FA) for each fiber tract. The values were compared between groups by repeated measures analysis of variance with age and gender as covariates, which allowed us to investigate significant differences between the tracts. Results When compared with healthy controls, the patients with bipolar disorder showed significantly decreased FA in the ATR and UF, and a trend towards lower FA in the SLF and cingulum. However, there were no FA differences between groups in the IFO. Conclusions Our study indicates that bipolar patients show abnormalities within white matter tracts connecting the frontal cortex with the temporal and parietal cortices and the fronto-subcortical circuits. These findings suggest that alterations in the connectivity of white matter tracts in the frontal cortex might contribute to the neuropathology of bipolar disorder.