title: The impact of limbic system morphology on facial emotion recognition in bipolar I disorder and healthy controls.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Impairments in facial emotion recognition (FER) have been reported in bipolar disorder (BD) subjects during all mood states. This study aims to investigate the impact of limbic system morphology on FER scores in BD subjects and healthy controls.
  
  
  METHODS
  Thirty-nine euthymic BD I (type I) subjects and 40 healthy controls were subjected to a battery of FER tests and examined with 3D structural imaging of the amygdala and hippocampus.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The volume of these structures demonstrated a differential pattern of influence on FER scores in BD subjects and controls. In our control sample, larger left and right amygdala demonstrated to be associated to less recognition of sadness faces. In BD group, there was no impact of amygdala volume on FER but we observed a negative impact of the left hippocampus volume in the recognition of happiness while the right hippocampus volume positively impacted on the scores of happiness.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our results indicate that amygdala and hippocampus volumes have distinct effects on FER in BD subjects compared to controls. Knowledge of the neurobiological basis of the illness may help to provide further insights on the role of treatments and psychosocial interventions for BD. Further studies should explore how these effects of amygdala and hippocampus volumes on FER are associated with social networks and social network functioning.
authors.affiliation: Mood Disorders Unit, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil.
authors.forename: Danielle Soares
authors.initials: DS
authors.lastname: Bio
authors.forename: Márcio Gerhardt
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: Soeiro de-Souza
authors.forename: Maria Concepción Garcia
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Otaduy
authors.forename: Rodrigo
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Machado-Vieira
authors.forename: Ricardo Alberto
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Moreno
keywords: bipolar disorder; facial emotion recognition; social cognition