Anatomical dysconnectivity in bipolar disorder compared with schizophrenia: A selective review of structural network analyses using diffusion MRI

Background: The dysconnectivity hypothesis suggests that psychotic illnesses arise not from regionally specific focal pathophysiology, but rather from impaired neuroanatomical integration across networks of brain regions. Decreased white matter organization has been hypothesized to be a feature of psychotic illnesses in general, which is supported by meta-analyses of DTI studies in bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. Although many diffusion MRI studies investigate bipolar disorder and schizophrenia alone, relatively few studies directly compare structural features in these psychotic illnesses. Recently, the application of graph theory analyses to DTI data has supported the dysconnectivity hypothesis in bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, employing topological properties to assess neuroanatomical dysconnectivity.

Methods: This selective review evaluates white matter alterations using Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI) in bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, with a focus upon direct comparison DTI studies in both psychotic illnesses. We then expand in more detail on the development of network analyses and the application of these techniques in bipolar disorder and schizophrenia.

Results: Converging evidence indicates that frontal connectivity alterations are common to both disorders, with prominent fronto-temporal deficits identified in schizophrenia and inter-hemispheric and limbic alterations reported in bipolar disorder.

Limitations: In bipolar disorder, most connectome reports use cortical maps alone, which given the importance of the limbic system in emotional regulation may limit the scope of network approaches in mood disorders.

Conclusions: Further direct connectivity comparisons between these psychotic illnesses may assist in unravelling the neuroanatomical deviations underpinning the overlapping features of psychosis and cognitive impairment, and the more diagnostically distinctive features of affective disturbance in bipolar disorder and deficit syndrome in schizophrenia.