Study Looks at Bipolar Youth

(May 31, 2006) -- A U.S. study shows youths with bipolar disorder misread facial expressions as hostile and show heightened neural reactions when focusing on neutral faces.

Researchers at the National Institutes of Health's National Institute of Mental Health say their 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 1 percent of children.

Brain scans showed that the left amygdala, a fear hub, and related structures, activated more in youths with the disorder than in healthy youths 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, Brendan Rich, Daniel Pine and colleagues

The study appears in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Source: NIMH

Last updated: 06/06

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