Neural Correlates of Emotional Processing in Bipolar Disorder, Major Depressive Disorder and Schizophrenia: A Neuroimaging Meta-Analysis

Objective: Emotional processing is fundamental to human cognition and social interaction,yet it is frequently disrupted in psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder,and major depressive disorder (MDD). This thesis conducted a coordinate-based metaanalysisto identify both shared and disorder-specific neural alterations underlying emotionalprocessing across these conditions.Methods: A systematic literature search identified 119 eligible fMRI studies, including 32 onbipolar disorder, 52 on depression, and 35 on schizophrenia. Activation LikelihoodEstimation (ALE) was applied to determine consistent brain activation patterns, with separatemeta-analyses performed for each disorder and pooled analyses used to assess transdiagnosticconvergence. Conjunction and contrast analyses further clarified overlapping and distinctneural correlates.Results: Results revealed robust convergence in the amygdala, prefrontal, and limbic regionsacross disorders, confirming their central role in emotional dysfunction. The pooledtransdiagnostic analysis revealed consistent activation differences in the right amygdala andthe left inferior frontal junction (IFJ). Follow-up analyses suggested that disorder-specificheterogeneity and task-related variability may obscure consistent effects in some groups.Conclusion: These findings provide evidence for both common and distinct neuralmechanisms of emotional processing deficits, highlighting the amygdala as a transdiagnostichub while also emphasizing disorder-specific patterns. The results offer valuable insights fortailoring clinical interventions aimed at improving emotion regulation in psychiatricpopulations.