Functional Connectome in Bipolar Disorder

Bipolar disorder (BD) is a major psychiatric illness which is thought to have strong biological underpinnings. A biological basis for BD is exemplified by a strong heritability of the disorder (1), occurrence of mood periods of mania (BPM), and depression (BPD), which may or may not be precipitated by environmental factors and dramatic improvement with specific medication treatment such as lithium(2). Therefore, with the augment of brain imaging techniques to study brain metabolism and task-induced activation there is an expectation that a brain state or trait abnormalities specific to BD will be identified.