Abstract #3459

Macrostructural and Microstructual Abnormalities of the Neurocircuitry in Bipolar Disorder: A Study of Structural MR and Diffusion Tensor Imaging Data

Ping-Hong Yeh¹, E. Serap Monkul², Mark A. Nicoletti, John P. Hatch³, Fabiano G. Nery², Jack Lancaster³, Jair C. Soares

¹Psychiatry, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA; ²Department of Psychiatry, University of Sao Paulo Medical School, Sao Paulo, Brazil; ³Department of Psychiatry, The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, U.S.A

The present study investigated the association between microstructural and macrostructural WM abnormalities and their relationships with the connectivity of WM tracts in unmedicated bipolar disorder(BD). Our results showed BD had larger white matter hyperintensitites and greater connectivity in the white matter tracts processing executive function, which may underlie the neuropsychological impairment in BD patients.