Rocco DiCintio
Picture
this; you are in a crowded space. There is not much room to move in either
direction. In fact, you are being told to move as little as humanly possible.
On top of all that, this place is also extremely noisy. Although the scene just
described may seem like it were taken out of your most recent nightmare, it is in
fact the uncomfortable reality that many people experience when they are sent
to have an MRI done. Speaking from personal experience, I can attest to the
uncomfortable nature of an MRI machine. Now, imagine how difficult it would be
to get a young child to enter and stay inside one of these machines. If you can
convince the child to enter the machine, then the child must also refrain from
any major movement for minutes at a time. More specifically, fMRI studies
conducted with young children require the children to stay relatively still in
order to produce usable data. After learning about all the possible
difficulties that come along with fMRI studies involving children, one may
wonder “Why bother conducting these experiments?”.
After further research, the
benefits of conducting this type of research quickly become evident.
One specific lab used an fMRI study with children to
examine the different ways in which Bipolar disorder affects the brains of
adults and children. This study, conducted by individuals associated with Bradley
hospital, used data accumulated from one hundred fMRI studies. The goal of this
study was to gain a better understanding of the neuronal mechanism that allows
for the development of Bipolar disorder. The participants in these studies were
both adults and children. Some of the data these researchers were analyzing came
from studies that gathered data from face recognition fMRI studies. After
reviewing the data collected, researchers found a striking difference between
the brain activity of the adults and the brain activity of the children. More
specifically, the data showed that there was greater activity in amygdala in
bipolar youth when compared to bipolar adults.
The team of researchers at Bradley hospital also examined
data from studies that involved exposing participants to emotional stimuli. The
result of these studies once again pointed to a greater amount of brain
activity in the children. More specifically, greater activity in the inferior
frontal gyrus was recorded for the children who participated in this study.
When children were exposed to non-emotional cognitive tasks they showed a
decreased level of activity, in comparison to adults, in the anterior cingulate
cortex. The results collected from these multiple studies allowed the
researchers at Bradley hospital to uncover specific areas of the brain that are
either over-active or under-active in children who suffer from Bipolar
disorder. The information gathered from this research has now prompted the
researchers at Bradley hospital to conduct further research. This new research
is aimed at developing a brain-based treatment for Bipolar disorder. As of now,
the researchers believe that treatments that target emotional face
identification may prove to be most effective. Treatment options being considered
include computer games, titled “brain games”, as well as individual and group
therapy.
This research is extremely important because it seeks to
find a solution to alleviate some of the symptoms of Bipolar disorder. Research
has shown that many adults who suffer from Bipolar disorder have reported that
they first began suffering from this disorder at a young age. For this reason,
it is important to develop some sort of treatment that can alleviate the symptoms
of Bipolar disorder at a young age. Bipolar disorder takes a great toll on the
lives of children and adults each and every year. This disorder can affect all
areas of an individual’s life, including their professional, social, and
familial relations. Thanks to methods such as the utilization of fMRI studies
with children, brain based treatment for bipolar disorder is now closer than
ever.
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