The neural correlates of cognitive control in bipolar I disorder: an fMRI study of medial frontal cortex activation during a Go/No-go task

In addition to dysregulation of mood, bipolar I disorder (BD I) is characterized by abnormalities in the execution of cognitive control. Hypoactivation of a specific sub-region in the cognitive control network, located in the medial frontal cortex, has been described among BD I patients. The aim of this study was to investigate whether patients with BD I showed decreased activation in this brain region as compared to healthy controls when performing a cognitive control task. Twenty-four BD I patients and 24 healthy controls performed a Go/No-go task during a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) session. Performance and response times were recorded. The BD I subjects had significantly slower response times and more patients made errors of omission compared to the healthy controls during the task. Both BD I subjects and healthy controls demonstrated activations in the brain region of interest during the task, but analyses revealed no statistically significant differences between groups. Although the patients display some deviances in behavioural measures, this study reveals no significant differences between BD I subjects and healthy controls in recruitment of the medial frontal cortex during a Go/No-go task.