White-matter microstructure and gray-matter volumes in adolescents with subthreshold bipolar symptoms.

M-L Paillère Martinot, , H Lemaitre, E Artiges, R Miranda, R Goodman, J Penttilä, M Struve, T Fadai, V Kappel, L Poustka, P Conrod, T Banaschewski, A Barbot, G J Barker, C Büchel, H Flor, J Gallinat, H Garavan, A Heinz, B Ittermann, C Lawrence, E Loth, K Mann, T Paus, Z Pausova, M Rietschel, T W Robbins, M N Smolka, G Schumann, J-L Martinot
Mol Psychiatry. 2013-04-30; 19(4): 462-470
DOI: 10.1038/mp.2013.44


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Abnormalities in white-matter (WM) microstructure, as lower fractional anisotropy
(FA), have been reported in adolescent-onset bipolar disorder and in youth at
familial risk for bipolarity. We sought to determine whether healthy adolescents
with subthreshold bipolar symptoms (SBP) would have early WM microstructural
alterations and whether those alterations would be associated with differences in
gray-matter (GM) volumes. Forty-two adolescents with three core manic symptoms
and no psychiatric diagnosis, and 126 adolescents matched by age and sex, with no
psychiatric diagnosis or symptoms, were identified after screening the IMAGEN
database of 2223 young adolescents recruited from the general population. After
image quality control, voxel-wise statistics were performed on the diffusion
parameters using tract-based spatial statistics in 25 SBP adolescents and 77
controls, and on GM and WM images using voxel-based morphometry in 30 SBP
adolescents and 106 controls. As compared with healthy controls, adolescents with
SBP displayed lower FA values in a number of WM tracts, particularly in the
corpus callosum, cingulum, bilateral superior and inferior longitudinal
fasciculi, uncinate fasciculi and corticospinal tracts. Radial diffusivity was
mainly higher in posterior parts of bilateral superior and inferior longitudinal
fasciculi, inferior fronto-occipital fasciculi and right cingulum. As compared
with controls, SBP adolescents had lower GM volume in the left anterior cingulate
region. This is the first study to investigate WM microstructure and GM
morphometric variations in adolescents with SBP. The widespread FA alterations in
association and projection tracts, associated with GM changes in regions involved
in mood disorders, suggest altered structural connectivity in those adolescents.

DOI: 10.1038/mp.2013.44
PMCID: PMC3965837
PMID: 23628983 [Indexed for MEDLINE]

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