Elevated Frontal Brain Activity in Social Cognition - A Risk Marker of Bipolar Disorder?

788 

Abstract Submission 

Dahna Choi¹, Katharina Förster¹, Malin Hildebrandt², Lara Maliske¹, Konrad Lehmann¹, Philipp Kanske¹, Emanuel Jauk³

¹Clinical Psychology and Behavioral Neuroscience, Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden, Germany, ²Addiction Research, Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden, Germany, ³Medical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Medical University of Graz, Graz, Austria

Dahna Choi  
Clinical Psychology and Behavioral Neuroscience, Technische Universität Dresden
Dresden, Germany

Katharina Förster  
Clinical Psychology and Behavioral Neuroscience, Technische Universität Dresden
Dresden, Germany

Malin Hildebrandt  
Addiction Research, Technische Universität Dresden
Dresden, Germany

Lara Maliske  
Clinical Psychology and Behavioral Neuroscience, Technische Universität Dresden
Dresden, Germany

Konrad Lehmann  
Clinical Psychology and Behavioral Neuroscience, Technische Universität Dresden
Dresden, Germany

Philipp Kanske  
Clinical Psychology and Behavioral Neuroscience, Technische Universität Dresden
Dresden, Germany

Emanuel Jauk  
Medical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Medical University of Graz
Graz, Austria

The identification of endophenotypes is of great importance for characterizing individuals at risk for psychiatric disorders. Especially in the case of bipolar disorders (BD), these research endeavors are imperative considering that the frequently delayed diagnoses and longer illness durations are associated with symptom exacerbation and lower recovery rates. In the present study, we investigated the role of social affect and -cognition as potential endophenotypes of BD. To this end, in a community sample (N = 140), we tested our preregistered hypotheses (https://osf.io/kh2tv) on associations between hypomanic personality traits as a marker of BD risk and behavioral and neural measures of empathy and ToM from an fMRI paradigm (EmpaToM). In consideration of indications from previous studies, we hypothesized behavioral empathy and task-based neural activity in empathy-related ROIs to be positively associated with hypomanic personality traits, and behavioral ToM performance and task-based neural activity in ToM-related ROIs to be negatively associated with hypomanic personality traits.

Data were acquired in the scope of a larger study (Hildebrandt et al., 2021; Jauk et al., in press). As a measure of social affect and -cognition, we used the EmpaToM, a naturalistic fMRI paradigm assessing behavioral and neural correlates of empathy and ToM (Kanske et al., 2015). For assessing hypomanic personality traits, data from the the Hypomanic Personality Scale (HPS) were analyzed. Exploratory whole-brain analyses as well as more targeted ROI analyses were performed. Based on findings from previous neuroimaging research (Kanske et al., 2015; Miskowiak et al., 2017; Schurz et al., 2021), bilateral inferior frontal gyri pars orbitalis (IFG), bilateral angular gyri, precuneus, and left cerebellum were selected as empathy-ROIs, while ToM-ROIs comprised bilateral triangular parts of the IFG, left posterior cingulate gyrus, two areas in the middle temporal gyrus, right cerebellum, and bilateral superior medial frontal cortices (mPFC).
Additional whole brain analyses were calculated at a voxel-level threshold of p < .001 (uncorrected) with a cluster threshold of k > 10 contiguous voxels. For all linear regression and t-test analyses in R, a standard threshold of p < .05 (uncorrected) was taken as the inference criterion for hypothesis testing. Analyses were conducted by means of multiple linear regressions, testing for associations between the HPS and the respective dependent variables. In each regression model, study participants' sex and age were added as control covariates into the model.

Linear regression analyses revealed a significant effect of the HPS on ToM-related neural activity in the right mPFC (β = .171, p = .046). In the scope of exploratory whole-brain-analyses, results indicate further ToM-related neural activity to be positively associated with the HPS, mainly located in a cluster in the rostral anterior cingulate cortex (ACC, x = 3, y = 33, z = 6; k = 31, voxel level: p < .001). Analyses on behavioral ToM yielded no significant results regarding the effect of the HPS on behavioral ToM performance (p = .582). There were no significant results on the effect of the HPS on behavioral nor neural correlates of empathy (all p > .05).

Based on our study findings, we suggest elevated mPFC and ACC activity in association with BD risk to conceivably indicate additional resources that are activated in situations demanding socio-cognitive functioning. We encourage further research endeavors to investigate socio-affective and -cognitive mechanisms in differentially characterized BD-risk populations. Prospectively, our study contributes to driving towards a more comprehensive and potentially neurobiologically grounded phenotype of BD risk for a more differential understanding of risk and resilience mechanisms.

Psychiatric (eg. Depression, Anxiety, Schizophrenia) ²

Social Cognition ¹

Social Neuroscience Other

Activation (eg. BOLD task-fMRI)

FUNCTIONAL MRI

Other - Social Affect; Social Cognition; Bipolar Disorder Risk