Malina Maxham
Research Mentor(s): Sarah Sperry
Mentor Department: Psychiatry
Authors: Malina Maxham, Julia Smith, Sarah Sperry
Session: Session 6 (3:00pm – 3:50pm)
Presentation Type: Poster 35
Abstract
Many problematic behaviors in bipolar disorder (BD) can be attributed to emotion-based impulsivity: the tendency to act in an impulsive manner when experiencing strong emotions. However, there is a lack of research on emotion-based impulsivity which is necessary to design appropriate interventions. The focus of this study is to identify the neural mechanisms underlying emotion-based impulsivity in bipolar disorder. This study consists of three participant groups: healthy controls, subclinical BD, and diagnosed BD. The lab’s goal is to recruit 40 individuals in each group. Individuals are recruited and interviewed to determine which cohort they should be placed into. Following recruitment participants complete a series of cognitive tests and undergo an electroencephalogram (EEG) recording. The EEG recording occurs while the participants are completing a task designed to test their response inhibition. In addition to this, participants fill out daily questionnaires concerning their emotions and impulsive behaviors. For my UROP experience I am directly involved in collecting the EEG data. Currently 29 BD participants, 22 subclinical BD participants, and 33 healthy controls have completed the study. After preprocessing, we have clean EEG data for 24 BD participants, 17 subclinical BD participants, and 30 healthy controls. Preliminary results show that individuals with BD and subclinical BD have more emotion-based impulsivity and that this may be related to changes in neural activation detected by the EEG. Using EEG can help us understand more about emotion-based impulsivity. Uncovering the neural mechanisms underlying emotion-based impulsivity, more clinical interventions can be created to improve the treatment of individuals with BD.
