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Bipolar I disorder (BPI) is among the top 10 most debilitating illnesses globally. In this critical review, we first review recent functional neuroimaging findings in two core domains of pathology in BPI: emotion processing and executive control. These abnormalities in core domains represent potential endophenotypes of the illness. We then show that an emerging number of studies have demonstrated that neuroimaging can help to identify endophenotypic markers whose identification would help to clarify diagnosis and discriminate the depression in BPI from that of unipolar depression and identify at-risk individuals who will subsequently develop the illness (to facilitate early intervention). We end by reviewing the new directions in neuroimaging in BPI, including studies of children with bipolar disorder, potential medication effects, and the use of newer neuroimaging techniques to help us achieve the previously mentioned goals of improving BPI patients' mental well-being.

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Objectives It can be clinically difficult to distinguish depressed individuals with bipolar disorder (BD) and major depressive disorder (MDD). To examine potential biomarkers of difference between the two disorders, the current study examined differences in the functioning of emotion processing neural regions during a dynamic emotional faces task. Methods During functional magnetic resonance imaging, healthy control adults (HC) (n = 29) and depressed adults with MDD (n = 30) and BD (n = 22) performed an implicit emotional-faces task in which they identified a color label superimposed on neutral faces that dynamically morphed into one of four emotional faces (angry, fearful, sad, happy). We compared neural activation between the groups in an amygdala region-of-interest and at the whole brain level. Results Adults with MDD showed significantly greater activity than adults with BD in the left amygdala to the anger condition (p = 0.01). Results of whole brain analyses (at p < 0.005, k ≥ 20) revealed that adults with BD showed greater activity to sad faces in temporoparietal regions, primarily in the left hemisphere, whereas individuals with MDD demonstrated greater activity than those with BD to displays of anger, fear, and happiness. Many of the observed BD–MDD differences represented abnormalities in functioning compared to HC. Conclusions We observed a dissociation between depressed adults with BD and MDD in the processing of emerging emotional faces. Those with BD showed greater activity during mood-congruent (i.e., sad) faces, whereas, those with MDD showed greater activity for mood-incongruent (i.e., fear, anger, and happy) faces. Such findings may reflect markers of differences between BD and MDD depression in underlying pathophysiological processes.

Proteins can confer functional properties to micro-or nanodevices or can passivate microdevice surfaces. We investigated the binding behavior, structure, and activity of a model protein ͑streptavidin͒ bound to thermally grown silicon dioxide, a substrate chosen for its prevalence in microfabricated devices. Multiple binding techniques ͑direct adsorption, substrate nanometer-scale patterning, and chemical conjugation͒ were investigated. Atomic force microscopy ͑AFM͒ images of surfaces prepared using these methods revealed differential morphological differences in proteins bound using each method. AFM adhesion measurements with protein-functionalized tips also showed a variation in adhesion strength between the techniques that was further supported by fluorescence imaging and biological assay. We show that nanometer-scale patterning and chemical conjugation both improve protein binding to the surface compared to direct adsorption. These techniques provide methods for directed attachment of proteins to biomedical devices.