Reduced Prefrontal Activation During the Tower of London and Verbal Fluency Task in Patients With Bipolar Depression: A Multi-Channel NIRS Study.

Linyan Fu,Ling Xiao,Dan Xiang,Jiawei Xiao,Lihua Yao,Zhongchun Liu,Ying Wang,Gaohua Wang,Huiling Wang

doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2018.00214

Linyan Fu, Ling Xiao + Show 7 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2018.00214

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Abstract

Background: The Tower of London (TOL) task is one of the most commonly used tests for evaluating executive functions, and can indicate planning and problem-solving abilities. The aim of this study was to evaluate hemodynamic changes between the task period and rest period in patients with bipolar depression during the TOL task and the verbal fluency task (VFT) using near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS).Methods: Forty-three patients with bipolar depression and 32 healthy controls (HCs) matched for sex, age, handedness, and years of education were enrolled in this study. All participants were aged between 16 and 50. All patients in our study were taking medications such as antidepressants, antipsychotics and mood stabilizers at the time of measurement. Changes in oxygenated hemoglobin (oxy-Hb) levels in frontal areas during the TOL task and VFT were evaluated using a 41-channel NIRS system.Results: During the TOL task, the patients with bipolar depression exhibited significantly smaller changes in the bilateral dorsal-lateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) than the HCs. During the VFT task, the patients with bipolar depression exhibited significantly smaller changes in the right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (VLPFC), the right DLPFC and both the right and left prefrontal cortex (PFC) than the HCs.Limitations: Our sample size was small, and the effects of medication cannot be excluded.Conclusions: These results indicate that planning and problem solving dysfunction is related to the impairment of the prefrontal cortex in patients with bipolar depression, and NIRS can be used to assess planning and problem solving abilities, which are essential to daily life in patients with bipolar disorder.

Highlights

Bipolar disorder is a major psychiatric disorder that is characterized by moods that alternate between episodes of depression and mania or hypomania
There were no significant differences between patients with bipolar depression and healthy controls (HCs) in gender, age, and education
Significant differences between patients with bipolar depression and HCs were observed in Tower of London (TOL) task and verbal fluency task (VFT) performance

Summary

Introduction

Bipolar disorder is a major psychiatric disorder that is characterized by moods that alternate between episodes of depression and mania or hypomania. Because this disease lacks objective and definitive biomarkers and its pathological and pathophysiological mechanisms are still unclear [1], as with other psychiatric disorders, the diagnosis of bipolar disorder depends on clinical conversations using a diagnostic system such as the International Classification of Diseases (ICD) [2, 3]. Previous studies have suggested that patients with bipolar disorder have abnormal activation in the frontal and temporal regions, which are known to be related to attention and executive function [9, 10]. The aim of this study was to evaluate hemodynamic changes between the task period and rest period in patients with bipolar depression during the TOL task and the verbal fluency task (VFT) using near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS)

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