In addition to symptoms specifically related to mood dysregulation, patients with bipolar disorder (BD) show frequent alterations in formal thought organization. A disruption in semantic processing, notably in semantic inhibition, is one of the possible mechanisms that might explain this modified organization. However, to date, little is known about these mechanisms and their underlying neural substrates. This study aimed to identify the neural correlates of the semantic inhibition process in BD patients in comparison to healthy controls. Seventeen BD patients and 17 matched controls were recruited and underwent a 3T MRI scan. A semantic ambiguity resolution task was used during the scan to explore semantic inhibition. Whole-brain analyses were conducted on 13 BD patients and 16 controls. When compared to controls, BD patients had stronger activation in the bilateral temporal areas and right middle frontal gyrus, and less activation in the right hippocampus, parahippocampal area, and bilateral precunei. The present study revealed an altered fronto-temporo-parietal semantic inhibition network in BD patients that could reflect compensative mechanisms or modified semantic processing inducing abnormal thought organization, which has a major impact on the occupational and social functioning of the BD population.

除了与情绪失调特别相关的症状外，双相情感障碍 (BD) 患者还表现出正式思维组织的频繁改变。语义处理的中断，特别是语义抑制，是解释这种修改后的组织的可能机制之一。然而，迄今为止，对这些机制及其潜在的神经基质知之甚少。本研究旨在确定与健康对照相比，BD 患者语义抑制过程的神经相关性。招募了 17 名 BD 患者和 17 名匹配的对照，并进行了 3T MRI 扫描。在扫描期间使用语义歧义解决任务来探索语义抑制。对 13 名 BD 患者和 16 名对照者进行了全脑分析。与对照相比，BD患者双侧颞区和右侧额中回的激活较强，右侧海马、海马旁区和双侧楔前叶的激活较少。本研究揭示了 BD 患者额颞顶叶语义抑制网络的改变，可以反映补偿机制或修改的语义处理，导致异常的思维组织，这对 BD 人群的职业和社会功能有重大影响。