Female Experiences and Brain Activity: an EEG Investigation Across Psychiatric Disorders

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and bipolar disorder (BD) affect approximately 2.5% and 1%, respectively, of the adult population in the UK. They represent a major clinical and economic burden on society. Genetic and environmental risk factors (such as life events for BD); have been identified for each disorder. Despite the highly different symptom presentations for ADHD and BD, it has recently become clear that they share a cognitive characteristic, observed in high response time variability (RTV). This has led to the question of whether the increased RTV, which reflects short-term fluctuations in performance, is a non-specific marker for psychopathology or whether the causes for the higher RTV could differ across disorders. RTV has been identified as a possible early marker of psychopathology; therefore a better understanding of the underlying mechanisms could lead to improved diagnosis and prevention of negative consequences. Further, it will give insight into the comorbidity observed between ADHD and BD. This study will use cognitive-electrophysiological methods to investigate the causes for RTV and its association with other cognitive and neurophysiological impairments observed in each disorder (aim 1). The second question will address whether, within each disorder, current cognitive functioning relates to the patients' current social functioning (aim 2). Adverse life events and other psychosocial risk factors can contribute to high variability in the level of social functioning observed, within and between individuals, in each disorder; yet our understanding of the association between current social functioning and cognitive functioning is limited. Finally the study will explore if any cognitive differences detected by electrophysiological investigation are associated with any candidate gene markers for either disorder (aim 3).