Decision-making and trait impulsivity in bipolar disorder are associated with reduced prefrontal regulation of striatal reward valuation.

ABSTRACT: Bipolar disorder is characterized by impaired decision-making captured in impulsivity and risk-taking. We sought to determine whether this is driven by a failure to effectively weight the lower-order goal of obtaining a strongly desired reward in relation to higher-order goals, and how this relates to trait impulsivity and risk-taking. We hypothesized that in bipolar disorder the weighting of valuation signals converging on ventromedial prefrontal cortex are more heavily weighted towards ventral striatum inputs (lower-order), with less weighting of dorsolateral prefrontal cortex inputs (higher-order). Twenty euthymic patients with bipolar disorder not in receipt of antipsychotic medication and 20 case-matched controls performed a roulette task during functional magnetic resonance imaging.

SUBMITTER: Mason L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4107743 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature