Neuroimaging changes in pre-treatment and post-treatment patients with bipolar disorder and their relationship with genetic characteristics

OBJECTIVE: Bipolar disorder (BD) patients may exhibit common and significant changes in brain activity before and after treatment. We aim to explore the changes in brain functional connectivity (FC) in BD before and after treatment, as well as their neuroimaging homogeneity, heterogeneity, and genetic variations. METHODS: In this study, we analyzed the seed points and whole-brain FC of the Salience Network (SN) and Dorsal Attention Network (DAN) in 83 healthy controls (HC) and 77 patients with BD (38 of whom completed follow-up), along with their genetic neuroimaging associations. RESULTS: The results showed that, compared to HC, patients with BD exhibited abnormal FC of the SN and DAN at baseline. After treatment, the FC in some regions of the SN decreased, while the FC of the DAN remained unchanged. We identified genes associated with changes in FC in BD, which were enriched in biological processes including synaptic transmission and ion transport. CONCLUSIONS: In summary, changes in FC of the SN may be potential neuroimaging markers of treatment effectiveness in patients with BD. Our genetic neuroimaging association analysis may help to comprehensively understand the molecular mechanisms underlying FC changes in patients with BD.