New Delhi: Changes in mood, even momentary changes, can profoundly enhance the brain's response to pleasure in people with bipolar disorder, according to a research.
People with this mental condition, marked by extreme swings in mood and energy levels, are more prone to this 'mood bias' – researchers use this term when someone's good mood makes them view everything in a more favorable light. Motivates for and therefore "gains momentum". mood.
"Imagine going to a new restaurant for the first time. If you're in a great mood, you'll find the experience even better than it actually is," said Liam Mason, of psychology and language at University College London." Co-lead author of the study published in the Biological Psychiatry Global Open Science Journal Sciences.
The researchers said the findings could help understand why people with bipolar disorder get stuck in a "vicious cycle" in which their mood worsens, sometimes causing them to take greater risks than usual.
For the study, researchers scanned the brains of participants while playing a computerized version of a roulette game – 21 of them with bipolar disorder and 21 without bipolar disorder. Playing the game involves gambling on which compartment of a spinning wheel a small ball will land in.
Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) brain scanning technology, researchers tracked participants' brain responses during wins and losses.They used computer models to measure how 'reward signals' in the brain were affected by changes in mood over just a few seconds. The team found intense activity in the anterior insula of the brain – which is involved in mood swings – in both groups of participants during the game.
However, only participants with bipolar disorder showed an increased effect of 'mood bias' on the perception of wins and losses. In brain scans, researchers observed intense activity in the participants' striatum – the area that responds to pleasant experiences.
"In the control group, both the insula and striatum were activated together, which suggests that participants were better able to take their 'mood' into account when perceiving rewards in the task."Meanwhile, participants with bipolar disorder showed the opposite; when there was high momentum, they were not able to differentiate how exciting they found the rewards," said co-lead author Hestia Moningka, a professor of psychology at University College London. language science.
The team also found a weakened communication between these brain regions – the anterior insula and striatum – in participants with bipolar disorder. According to Moningka, the findings could help us move beyond existing interventions, which often aim to regulate mood at the expense of reducing exciting experiences.
"Instead, new interventions that help people with bipolar disorder better separate their mood from their perception and decisions is one approach we are considering," Moningka said.
People with this mental condition, marked by extreme swings in mood and energy levels, are more prone to this 'mood bias' – researchers use this term when someone's good mood makes them view everything in a more favorable light. Motivates for and therefore "gains momentum". mood.
"Imagine going to a new restaurant for the first time. If you're in a great mood, you'll find the experience even better than it actually is," said Liam Mason, of psychology and language at University College London." Co-lead author of the study published in the Biological Psychiatry Global Open Science Journal Sciences.
The researchers said the findings could help understand why people with bipolar disorder get stuck in a "vicious cycle" in which their mood worsens, sometimes causing them to take greater risks than usual.
For the study, researchers scanned the brains of participants while playing a computerized version of a roulette game – 21 of them with bipolar disorder and 21 without bipolar disorder. Playing the game involves gambling on which compartment of a spinning wheel a small ball will land in.
Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) brain scanning technology, researchers tracked participants' brain responses during wins and losses.They used computer models to measure how 'reward signals' in the brain were affected by changes in mood over just a few seconds. The team found intense activity in the anterior insula of the brain – which is involved in mood swings – in both groups of participants during the game.
However, only participants with bipolar disorder showed an increased effect of 'mood bias' on the perception of wins and losses. In brain scans, researchers observed intense activity in the participants' striatum – the area that responds to pleasant experiences.
"In the control group, both the insula and striatum were activated together, which suggests that participants were better able to take their 'mood' into account when perceiving rewards in the task."Meanwhile, participants with bipolar disorder showed the opposite; when there was high momentum, they were not able to differentiate how exciting they found the rewards," said co-lead author Hestia Moningka, a professor of psychology at University College London. language science.
The team also found a weakened communication between these brain regions – the anterior insula and striatum – in participants with bipolar disorder. According to Moningka, the findings could help us move beyond existing interventions, which often aim to regulate mood at the expense of reducing exciting experiences.
"Instead, new interventions that help people with bipolar disorder better separate their mood from their perception and decisions is one approach we are considering," Moningka said.
