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l'Information Psychiatrique. Volume 83, Number 2, 107-16, Février 2007, Neurosciences en 2007

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Author(s) : Régine Jeanningros, Arthur Kaladjian

Summary : Neuroanatomy of bipolar disordersRecent imaging tools allow for more precise identification of structural anomalies present in the cerebral circuits. Hope is growing that this will enable us to improve our understanding of psychiatric disorders which have long been dependent on indirect biological experimentation, far from the brain. Although mental illnesses are not organic disorders, it is nevertheless true that discrete anatomical modifications are present, which could be either the cause or the consequence of the disorder, and can today be authenticated scientifically by means of imaging techniques. In the case of bipolar disorders, structural anomalies have been observed, in the frontal-limbic circuits involved in modulating social and emotional behaviour, which could explain the symptomatology of bipolar disorder.

Keywords : bipolar disorder, structural imaging, magnetic resonance imaging, brain