title: Reduced inferior frontal gyrus activation during response inhibition to emotional stimuli in youth at high risk of bipolar disorder.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Functional brain imaging of young people at increased genetic risk for bipolar disorder provides a means of identifying potential endophenotypes for this condition. Dysfunctional neural mechanisms for the cognitive control of emotion are implicated in the genetic predisposition to bipolar disorder, with aberrant activity in frontocortical, striatal, and limbic brain regions previously reported in subjects with established bipolar disorder during inhibitory and emotion processing tasks.
  
  
  METHODS
  Functional brain activity during inhibition of emotional material in young people at increased genetic risk for bipolar disorder was investigated using a facial-emotion go/no-go task during functional magnetic resonance imaging. Data from 47 genetically high-risk individuals aged 18 to 30 years with at least one first-degree relative with bipolar disorder were compared with 49 control subjects (within the same age range but without a family history of bipolar disorder or other severe mental illness).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Whole-brain corrected analyses revealed a highly specific and significant lack of recruitment of the inferior frontal gyrus when inhibiting responses to fearful faces in the high-risk participants compared with control subjects (p = .011, family-wise error, peak voxel).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Impaired inhibitory function of the inferior frontal cortex may represent a trait marker of vulnerability to bipolar disorder. That this finding was revealed during inhibition of emotional material further implicates dysregulated frontolimbic brain networks as a potential neurocognitive endophenotype for bipolar disorder and provides evidence for pre-existing functional disturbances in those at high genetic risk for bipolar disorder.
authors.affiliation: School of Psychiatry, University of New South Wales, NSW, Australia.
authors.forename: Gloria
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Roberts
authors.forename: Melissa J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Green
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Breakspear
authors.forename: Clare
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: McCormack
authors.forename: Andrew
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Frankland
authors.forename: Adam
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Wright
authors.forename: Florence
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Levy
authors.forename: Rhoshel
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Lenroot
authors.forename: Herng Nieng
authors.initials: HN
authors.lastname: Chan
authors.forename: Philip B
authors.initials: PB
authors.lastname: Mitchell
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001714:Bipolar Disorder / Q000235:genetics / Q000503:physiopathology*; D058068:Endophenotypes; D005149:Facial Expression; D005239:Fear / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D010465:Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D012307:Risk Factors; D055815:Young Adult