LONDON – In a groundbreaking study, researchers from University College London have identified specific brain regions responsible for the extreme mood swings associated with bipolar disorder. The study, published in Biological Psychiatry Global Open Science, has uncovered heightened activity in the ventral striatum, a critical area in the brain’s reward system, during winning streaks among individuals with bipolar disorder. This area showed a strong positive signal, indicating an intensified feeling of reward.
Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), the researchers observed 21 participants with bipolar disorder and 21 control participants while they engaged in a gambling game designed to induce mood shifts through monetary rewards. The study revealed that during periods of increased winning, the anterior insula, a brain region involved in mood awareness, exhibited reduced communication with the ventral striatum in participants with bipolar disorder. This suggests that these individuals struggle to separate their mood from their perception of rewards, leading to rapid and unpredictable mood changes.
Dr. Hestia Moningka, the lead researcher, explained that this heightened response to rewards might push moods to extremes, contributing to the dramatic mood cycles seen in bipolar disorder. The study highlights the need for interventions that can help individuals with bipolar disorder decouple their mood from their perceptions and decisions, without dampening their positive experiences.
The findings offer new insights into the neurobiological mechanisms underlying bipolar disorder and pave the way for more effective treatments targeting these specific brain regions.
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