Visuospatial planning in unmedicated major depressive disorder and bipolar disorder: distinct and common neural correlates

Abstract

More severely affected, medication-free mood disorder patients require greater parietal activity to perform in visuospatial planning, which may be compensatory to maintain relatively normal performance. State-dependent frontostriatal hyperactivity during planning may be a specific BD characteristic, providing clues for further characterization of differential pathophysiology in MDD v. BD. This could potentially provide a biomarker to aid in the differentiation of these disorders.