Disorganized Thalamic Subregional Functional Connectivity in Bipolar Disorder

Motivation: Compared to cortical regions, the involvement of functional connectivity of subcortical regions in bipolar disorder (BD) are less well known. Goal(s): The potential involvement of subcortical and subregions of thalamus are explored in BD. Approach: Seed-based subcortical and thalamic subregional functional connectivity was compared between the BD patients and HCs, as well as between patients with BD type I (BD-I) subgroup and HCs as a sub-group analysis. Results: BD patients showed increased functional connectivity between left thalamus and right lingual gyrus, between right anterior thalamus and superior frontal gyrus, and between right ventral anterior thalamus and precuneus. Impact: These findings provide evidence of disorganized thalamo-cortical functional connectivity in BD, suggesting that the thalamus and its subregions may play important and specific roles in the neural circuitry of BD.