BMC Psychiatry (Feb 2024)
Decreased dynamic variability of the cerebellum in the euthymic patients with bipolar disorder
Abstract
Abstract Background Bipolar disorder (BD) is a complex mental illness characterized by different mood states, including depression, mania/hypomania, and euthymia. This study aimed to comprehensively evaluate dynamic changes in intrinsic brain activity by using dynamic fractional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (dfALFF) and dynamic degree centrality (dDC) in patients with BD euthymia or depression and healthy individuals. Methods The resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging data were analyzed from 37 euthymic and 28 depressed patients with BD, as well as 85 healthy individuals. Using the sliding-window method, the dfALFF and dDC were calculated for each participant. These values were compared between the 3 groups using one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA). Additional analyses were conducted using different window lengths, step width, and window type to ensure the reliability of the results. Results The euthymic group showed significantly lower dfALFF and dDC values of the left and right cerebellum posterior lobe compared with the depressed and control groups (cluster level P FWE < 0.05), while the latter two groups were comparable. Brain regions showing significant group differences in the dfALFF analysis overlapped with those with significant differences in the dDC analysis. These results were consistent across different window lengths, step width, and window type. Conclusions These findings suggested that patients with euthymic BD exhibit less flexibility of temporal functional activities in the cerebellum posterior lobes compared to either depressed patients or healthy individuals. These results could contribute to the development of neuropathological models of BD, ultimately leading to improved diagnosis and treatment of this complex illness.
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