Decoding Emotional Dynamics in Bipolar Disorder

Summary

The goal of this neuroimaging study is to investigate how emotional states fluctuate in people with bipolar disorder (BD) compared to healthy controls, and to understand the neural mechanisms driving mood instability. The main questions it aims to answer are:

* Can emotional states be decoded from fMRI brain activity using machine learning?
* Do individuals with BD show more unstable emotional state trajectories (e.g., high metastability, low fractal scaling) than healthy controls?
* Does amplifying positive emotions stabilize brain and emotional dynamics in BD?

Researchers will compare individuals with bipolar disorder (BD-I or BD-II, currently depressed or mixed state) to healthy controls without psychiatric history to see whether the BD group shows greater fluctuations in emotional brain activity and whether positive emotion regulation strategies normalize this instability.

Participants will:

* Complete self-report questionnaires on mood, emotion regulation, anxiety, and daily functioning.
* Recall and provide short descriptions of personal positive and negative memories to be used in the MRI task.
* Undergo fMRI scanning, including:
* Resting-state scans
* A Think and Regulate Affective States Task (TReAT) where they recall autobiographical memories, rate emotions, and practice amplifying positive mood.
* Structural and diffusion MRI for brain mapping.
* Receive physiological monitoring (heart rate, respiration) during scanning.
* Complete post-scan surveys on emotional state and task experience.

This research will help clarify how the brain supports or disrupts emotional regulation in bipolar disorder and may inform the development of personalized, neurobiologically informed treatments for mood instability.

Conditions

• Bipolar Disorder I or II
• Healthy (Controls)

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Think and Regulate Affective State Task

Participants complete the Think and Regulate Affective States Task (TReAT) during fMRI scanning. This task presents brief cues of participants' own autobiographical memories, four positive and four negative, to evoke corresponding emotional states. While viewing these cues, participants alternate between thinking about the memory, rating emotional valence and arousal, and practicing positive emotion amplification strategies. Each session includes multiple blocks of "Think," "Rate," "Regulate," "Attention," and "Rest" periods. Physiological measures (heart rate and respiration) are recorded concurrently. The task is designed to decode emotional states from fMRI data and evaluate the neural impact of positive emotion regulation in bipolar disorder compared to healthy controls.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS)

  collaborator NIH

• National Institutes of Health (NIH)

  collaborator NIH

• Laureate Institute for Brain Research, Inc.

  lead OTHER

Study Design

Allocation

NA

Purpose

BASIC_SCIENCE

Masking

NONE

Model

SINGLE_GROUP

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Max Age

65 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2025-10-30

Primary Completion

2028-11-30

Completion

2028-11-30

Countries

• United States

Study Locations