Using Neuroplasticity-Based Computerized Training to Improve Emotion Regulation in Bipolar Disorder (BRAINS)

The goal of this study is to evaluate the feasibility and potential benefit of a behavioral intervention designed to improve emotion regulation in individuals with bipolar disorder. The intervention consists of game-like exercises that involve the 'Cognitive Control of Emotion (CCE) - i.e. the ability to control the influence of emotional information on behavior. Deficits in the cognitive control of emotion are a central feature of Bipolar Disorder that contributes to emotion dysregulation, maladaptive mood episodes, and, ultimately, the overall chronicity and severity of illness. Neuroimaging studies of bipolar patients demonstrate neural abnormalities in brain systems involved in cognitive control and emotion processing. Furthermore, these abnormalities predict mood and behavior problems associated with cognitive control of emotion, such as emotion lability, disinhibited behavior, and extreme mood states. The aim of this study is to determine feasibility and examine whether a computer-based program of progressively difficult cognitive control emotion exercises will improve cognitive control of emotion skills and, thereby, result in better emotion regulation and daily functioning in young adults with bipolar disorder. To test the intervention, a single group of young adults (18-30 years old) with Bipolar I Disorder will complete behavioral assessments before and after 20 hours (4 weeks) of CCE training. In order to identify baseline deficits associated with bipolar disorder, a comparison group of healthy young adults will complete behavioral assessments at a single time-point (without CCE training).