Polarisation of brain dynamics in mania and depression.

Overview

1. Graduate Institute of Mind Brain and Consciousness, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan
2. International Master/Ph.D. Program in Medicine, College of Medicine, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan
3. Department of Neuroscience, Rehabilitation, Ophthalmology, Genetics, Maternal and Child Health, Section of Psychiatry, University of Genoa, Genoa, Italy
4. IRCCS Ospedale Policlinico San Martino, Genoa, Italy
5. Center for Consciousness Science, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, MI, USA
6. Department of Anesthesiology, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, MI, USA
7. Michigan Psychedelic Center, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, MI, USA

Abstract

Introduction: This work investigated brain dynamics underlying manic and depressive states in bipolar disorder.

Methods: Resting-state fMRI data were obtained from 69 bipolar patients—34 manic, 35 depressed—and 73 healthy controls. Intrinsic brain activity was modelled as a temporal sequence of discrete quasi-stationary states (co-activation patterns), which were compared between groups and related to symptomatology.

Results: Mania was associated with increased occurrence of a co-activation pattern encompassing sensorimotor network areas, which positively correlated with manic symptomatology (hyperactivity and mood elevation) and manic polarity, and negatively correlated with depressive symptomatology (retardation and apathy). Depression was associated with increased occurrence of a co-activation pattern encompassing default-mode network areas, negatively correlating with manic symptomatology (hyperactivity and mood elevation).

Conclusions: These findings suggest that polarisation of brain dynamics towards low-order sensorimotor/insular systems—subserving perception and modulation of the outer and inner/body environments—may reshape subjective experience and behaviour promoting immediate interaction with the environment, manifesting as mania. Conversely, polarisation towards high-order associative systems—subserving stimulus-independent associative processing—may reshape experience and behaviour favouring detachment from the environment, manifesting as depression. This framework illustrates how changes in the functional brain architecture may alter the structure of phenomenal experience and behaviour in physiology and psychopathology.

Reproduced under the paper's license (CC BY), from the paper cited above.

Code

The paper says that its authors' code is available on request: it was not published with the paper, so there is nothing to verify.

The paper's code and data availability statement is in the Data section.

Tracing map

A tracing map links a paper to the code its authors published: this paper has none (its code is available on request), so it has no map.

Data

No dataset and no data link were found in the paper.

Data availability statement

The dataset generated and analysed during this study, as well as the codes used, are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Reproduced under the paper's license (CC BY), from the paper cited above.

Versions

The history of this record: each version stored by the harvester or made by a correction of its authors or of the maintainers of its code, and what changed in its facts. The texts of the paper (its abstract, its availability statements) are not part of it; versions that changed only those are not listed.

Version 1, 30 September 2026: the first record

Recorded: type, language, journal, volume, issue, pages, dates, 5 authors, 6 keywords, 11 MeSH terms, 43 references.

Cite

This paper

Martino, M., Magioncalda, P., Conio, B., Amore, M., & Huang, Z. (2026). Polarisation of brain dynamics in mania and depression. Dialogues in clinical neuroscience, 28(1), 10-20. https://doi.org/10.1080/19585969.2026.2663032

Similar papers

The papers with a page that share the most with this one: the tools found in their code, their categories, datasets, cited references and authors, the rarest counting most.

[1] doi:10.1038/s41467-026-76011-7 [code]

Human cortex organizes dynamic co-fluctuations along the sensorimotor-association axis.

Journal: Nature communications

In common: systems, 6 references

[2] doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.3003684 [code]

The retrieval of previously learned motor memories is facilitated by the reinstatement of default mode network manifold structures.

Journal: PLoS biology

In common: fMRI, 5 references

[3] doi:10.1162/imag.a.1202

Recurring transient brain-wide co-activation patterns from EEG spatially resembling time-averaged resting-state networks.

Journal: Imaging neuroscience (Cambridge, Mass.)

In common: fMRI, systems, 4 references

[4] doi:10.1016/j.celrep.2026.117830 [code]

Opposite network patterns of integration-segregation in psychedelic and sedated states of consciousness.

Journal: Cell reports

In common: fMRI, 4 references

[5] doi:10.1093/brain/awag032 [code]

A rostral prefrontal mediolateral gradient predicts creativity in frontotemporal dementia.

Journal: Brain : a journal of neurology

In common: fMRI, 4 references

[6] doi:10.1038/s41467-026-72605-3 [code]

Resolving mesoscale brainstem-prefrontal-striatal pathways underlying decisions upon salient events using submillimeter-resolution fMRI.

Journal: Nature communications

In common: fMRI, 4 references

[7] doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.3003738 [code]

Altered salience network structure-function integration underlies the decline in cognitive flexibility during aging.

Journal: PLoS biology

In common: fMRI, 4 references

[8] doi:10.1016/j.nbas.2026.100162

Effects of aerobic exercise intervention on the association between brain functional connectivity and cognition among older adults.

Journal: Aging brain

In common: fMRI, 4 references

[9] doi:10.1093/braincomms/fcag121 [code]

Anterior insular co-activation patterns associated with stress markers in chronic primary pain.

Journal: Brain communications

In common: fMRI, 3 references

[10] doi:10.1016/j.neuron.2026.04.011 [code]

Precision fMRI reveals densely interdigitated network patches with conserved motifs in the lateral prefrontal cortex.

Journal: Neuron

In common: fMRI, systems, 3 references

Contribute

The authors of this paper can claim it, correct its record and validate its tracing map, and the maintainers of its code (its owner, or a public member of its organization) correct what it says of their repository; anyone signed in can ask for its removal. Every request goes to OSCR's own machine, which answers it; your account page follows them.

Request its removal

To ask OSCR to remove this record, the copies of its authors' scripts or its tracing map, use the removal request page: signed in, you say who you are, what to remove and why, then review and confirm the request. Published rules decide every request (how).

Discussion: questions and error reports about this paper and its code, from signed-in readers and its authors. It opens with sign-in.

Reproductions: reports from readers who ran the authors' code: what they reproduced, with which environment, commit and data. It opens with sign-in.

Activity: what happens around this paper: new versions of its record, its map's validation, discussions and reproductions. It opens with sign-in.