# Vulnerability to Bipolar Disorder in Adolescence: Interactions Among Sleep Variability, Familial Risk, and Reward-Control Processes

> **NIH NIH K01** · UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH AT PITTSBURGH · 2020 · $160,432

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
The aim of the proposed K01 Mentored Research Scientist Development Award is to provide the candidate
with advanced expertise in developmental affective neuroscience and sleep research. Adolescence is a period
of heightened vulnerability to bipolar disorder (BD), and parental history of BD is a robust risk factor.
Impairments in reward processing and cognitive control are hypothesized to represent core mechanisms of
BD, as well as psychiatric conditions that often precede or co-occur with BD. In adolescence, maturation of
functional connections among neural circuitry supporting reward-control processes parallel rising BD incidence
rates. Neurobehavioral impairments in these domains are observed even in psychiatrically healthy offspring of
bipolar parents, perhaps reflecting vulnerabilities to subsequent psychopathology. To inform more potent
preventative treatments for BD, it is important to characterize modifiable factors that engage these
transdiagnostic neurobehavioral targets hypothesized to underlie risk for BD and related forms of
psychopathology, particularly in high-risk samples. Sleep is disturbed across most forms of psychopathology.
Sleep patterns become increasingly variable in adolescence, and sleep is an established contributor to brain
plasticity and function. Increased sleep variability could confer more adverse effects in offspring of bipolar
parents, for whom neural circuitry may already be compromised. However, it is possible that stabilizing sleep
may protect vulnerable neural circuitry in offspring of bipolar parents.  The proposed research aims to test a
model in which sleep variability exacerbates pre-existing neurobehavioral vulnerabilities (reward processing,
cognitive control) in adolescent offspring of bipolar parents relative to healthy adolescents. Adolescents aged
14-18yr will be recruited: 30 low-risk healthy offspring of healthy parents (LR) and a unique sample of 30 high-
risk offspring of bipolar parents (HR), further enriched for risk via the presence of a range of non-BD
psychopathology. All participants will complete well-validated daily sleep measures followed by fMRI and
behavioral measures of reward processing and cognitive control. For fMRI, task-related activity and
connectivity among interconnected neural circuits supporting reward processing (ventral frontostriatal) and
cognitive control (dorsal prefrontal) will be assessed. The primary aims assess sleep variability as a predictor
of subsequent neurobehavioral deficits in reward processing (Aim 1) and cognitive control (Aim 2) in HR and
LR. It is predicted that relationships between sleep and neurobehavioral function will be moderated by group
status, such that sleep variability will be more strongly related to impaired neurobehavioral function in HR
relative to LR. The exploratory aim will test the extent to which stabilizing sleep variability (via a brief behavioral
manipulation) modulates these neurobehavioral measures in a s...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9983820
- **Project number:** 5K01MH111953-05
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH AT PITTSBURGH
- **Principal Investigator:** Adriane M. Soehner
- **Activity code:** K01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $160,432
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2016-09-09 → 2022-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9983820

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9983820, Vulnerability to Bipolar Disorder in Adolescence: Interactions Among Sleep Variability, Familial Risk, and Reward-Control Processes (5K01MH111953-05). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9983820. Licensed CC0.

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