Aberrant activation of the mentalizing brain system during eye gaze discrimination in bipolar disorder

Reductions in regional theta power and fronto-parietal theta-gamma phase-amplitude coupling during gaze processing in bipolar disorder

“…This overall pattern of results is consistent with recent fMRI data showing reduced BOLD activation during gaze processing in BD in mPFC and left TPJ, but not right TPJ. 7 Taken together, these findings suggest that aberrant gaze processing in BD is subserved by widespread reductions in local theta synchronization, both in higher-level cognitive regions and parietal regions responsible for processing facial features.…”

“…For brevity throughout this paper, we will refer to ERSP simply as 'power'. Power was standardized in Decibels and normalized using a baseline of -200 to -50 ms. First, we estimated power for all sites (P7, P8, Fz), frequencies covering theta [4][5][6][7][8], alpha [8][9][10][11][12], beta [12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30] and gamma bands, and time-points from 0-750 ms. Next, for each frequency band and site, we selected time windows of interest (see Supplement for selection procedure) from which mean power estimates were extracted for analyses.…”

“…[STS] 4 ) and prefrontal areas (e.g., medial prefrontal cortex [mPFC]) for self-referential processing and top-down cognitive control. 5 Aberrant activity within-and connectivity betweenthese regions are associated with altered gaze processing, 6,7 suggesting that effective gaze perception relies on the integrity of both local activations and inter-regional communications.…”

“…One fMRI study showed reduced activation in mPFC and left TPJ during gaze discrimination in BD, suggesting abnormal local recruitment of key regions involved in gaze processing. 7 Others propose that BD may be a disease of (dis)connectivity between the PFC and other brain regions. 10 This is a plausible explanation for gaze processing aberrations in BD given evidence of reduced functional connectivity between visual and prefrontal regions in BD during face processing.…”

Reductions in regional theta power and fronto-parietal theta-gamma phase-amplitude coupling during gaze processing in bipolar disorder

“…Neuroimaging data show that earlier processes depend on temporal brain areas specialized for processing facial features (Allison et al, 2000), while higher-level processes rely on more frontal areas involved in higher level cognitive processes like self-referential processing and cognitive control (Cavanagh & Frank, 2014). Studies have shown that disrupted gaze perception observed at the behavior level is associated with altered regional neural activity and connectivity between these regions (Tso, Burton, et al, 2021;. This suggests that effective gaze perception depends on the integrity of both local neural activity and inter-regional communications in the brain.…”