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• Clinical Article •
Default mode network functional connectivity changes in adolescent bipolar disorder patients after short-term treatment
ZHU Pengyu  CHEN Xiong  ZOU Lulu  CHEN Fang  GU Junchen  WANG Yuxi  XIANG Jialin  DENG Xiumin  QIN Kun  AI Chunqi  CHEN Wen 

DOI:10.12015/issn.1674-8034.2025.12.003.


[Abstract] Objective To investigate changes in default mode network (DMN) functional connectivity (FC) in adolescents with bipolar disorder (BD) after short-term treatment and their correlation with clinical symptoms.Materials and Methods Thirty patients with BD were enrolled and underwent follow-up assessments after two weeks of naturalistic treatment, along with 33 age- and sex-matched healthy control (HC). Clinical assessments included: the 17-item Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAMD-17) for depressive symptoms, the Young Mania Rating Scale (YMRS) for manic symptoms, and the Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale (HAMA) for anxiety symptoms. Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) scans were acquired for all participants at both baseline and the 2-week follow-up timepoint. Using the DMN as seed regions, we performed whole-brain FC analysis. Three primary analyses were conducted: (1) Within-patient longitudinal comparison to identify FC changes between pre- and post-treatment; (2) Between-group cross-sectional comparisons (baseline BD vs. HC; post-treatment BD vs. HC) using two-sample t-tests; (3) Correlation analysis between significant treatment-related FC changes and clinical scale scores.Results The study found that after two weeks of treatment, the functional connectivity of the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) in patients changed, showing weakened connectivity with the right calcarine cortex and enhanced connectivity between the posterior cingulate cortex and the left middle occipital gyrus (t = 5.79, P = 0.001; t = 4.72, P = 0.004). However, no significant correlations were observed between these changes and clinical scale scores (r = 0.183, P = 0.466; r = 0.238, P = 0.342; r = 0.086, P = 0.684; r = -0.121, P = 0.631; r = -0.031, P = 0.902; r = -0.213, P = 0.308). Compared to the healthy control group, baseline BD patients exhibited abnormalities in the visual network (VN) and the salience network (SN). After treatment, these abnormalities in the VN and SN were not fully resolved, and slight abnormalities emerged in the frontoparietal network (FPN).Conclusions Short-term treatment can partially modulate the abnormal functional connectivity between the DMN, VN, and SN in BD patients. These neuroimaging findings provide new directions for understanding the neurobiological mechanisms of BD and optimizing early intervention strategies.
[Keywords] bipolar disorder；magnetic resonance imaging；functional connectivity；default mode network；visual network；salience network

ZHU Pengyu1   CHEN Xiong2   ZOU Lulu2   CHEN Fang2   GU Junchen2   WANG Yuxi1   XIANG Jialin1   DENG Xiumin1   QIN Kun1   AI Chunqi2   CHEN Wen1*  

1 Department of Radiology, Taihe Hospital, Hubei University of Medicine, Shiyan 442000, China

2 Center for Mental Health Services, Taihe Hospital, Hubei University of Medicine, Shiyan 442000, China

Corresponding author: CHEN W, E-mail: taiheren007@163.com

Conflicts of interest   None.

Received  2025-06-17
Accepted  2025-10-29
DOI: 10.12015/issn.1674-8034.2025.12.003
DOI:10.12015/issn.1674-8034.2025.12.003.

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