HHb changes.

<p>Changes in the deoxygenated blood concentration in the region of interest. Bars indicate the standard error. An asterisk indicates significant differences between conditions.</p

O₂Hb changes.

<p>Changes in the oxygenated blood concentration in the ROI. Bars indicate the standard error. * indicates significant differences between difficulty levels (p<0.05).</p

Number of errors.

<p>Errors made in the emotional n-back test in the different valence categories. Error bars indicate the standard error. An asterisk indicates a significant result.</p

Optode Placement.

<p>Placement of the fNIRS channels included in the ROI analyses of oxygenated and deoxygenated haemoglobin concentration changes.</p

LPP Amplitude.

<p>Mean Amplitude of the early LPP for the different valences (positive, negative and neutral) in the different task difficulties. An asterisk indicates significant differences in the amplitude for the different valences.</p

ERP curves.

<p>Stimulus locked ERPs averaged at Cz, Pz, CPz, CP1 and CP2 for the valences neutral, negative and positive for the 1-back condition (a), the 2-back condition (b) and the 3-back condition (c).</p

Mean and standard deviation of demographic data, psychiatric symptoms, reaction time in milliseconds, and artefact-free trials.

<p>Standard deviations are shown in parentheses; significant differences are marked with *.</p

Lithium-induced gene expression alterations in two peripheral cell models of bipolar disorder

<p><b>Objectives:</b> The aim of our study was to investigate molecular mechanisms of lithium action by studying the gene expression profile of peripheral cell models generated from bipolar patients (BD) and healthy controls (HC).</p> <p><b>Methods:</b> EBV-immortalised lymphoblastoid cells (LCLs) and fibroblast cells from BD and HC were incubated with either lithium chloride or plain medium for 3 weeks. We first conducted a microarray gene expression study. The most promising differentially regulated genes in terms of lithium-associated or disorder-associated pathways were then replicated by quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR).</p> <p><b>Results:</b> The pooled microarray analysis showed 459 genes to be differentially regulated in BD compared to HC and 58 due to lithium treatment in LCLs, and 295 genes to be differentially regulated in BD compared to HC and five due to lithium treatment in fibroblasts. After correction for multiple comparison, <i>EPHB1</i> disorder × treatment interactions remained significant in LCLs validated by qRT-PCR. In the control group, lithium influenced the expression of <i>ANP32E</i>, <i>PLEKHA2</i>, <i>KCNK1</i>, <i>PRKCH</i>, <i>ST3GAL6</i> and <i>AIF1</i>. In bipolar and control fibroblast cells lithium treatment decreased <i>FGF9</i> expression.</p> <p><b>Conclusions:</b> The differentially regulated genes in our study add evidence for the relevance of inflammation, neuronal/glial development, phosphatidylinositol second-messenger pathway and ion channels in the mode of action of lithium.</p

Grand average difference curves and peak topographies for <i>DAT1</i> (A) and <i>DRD4</i> (B) subgroups.

<p>Peak topographies for the ERN are at 40 ms, for the Pe at 218 ms.</p

Linkage disequilibrium (LD) pattern of <i>AHI1</i> gene.

<p>Figures represent pairwise r² values observed in control subjects from German (a) and Spanish (b) origin. Values are represented in a grayscale ranging from white (no LD) to black (high LD).</p