The Role of Inferior Parietal Lobule in Emotion Dysregulation in Bipolar Disorder.

Emotion dysregulation is a core feature of bipolar disorder (BD), with detrimental impacts on symptoms and functioning. The inferior parietal lobule (IPL) is a region consistently implicated in neurocircuit models of emotion regulation, yet the specific role of the IPL in emotion regulation generally, and emotion regulation in BD specifically, has been largely unexamined and unexplained. In this review, we attempt to better elucidate the role of the IPL in emotion regulation by examining normative evidence from healthy samples for IPL function in emotion regulation. We examine the specific role of the IPL in studies of emotion regulation generally, and in each of the subprocesses supporting emotion regulation - attentional deployment, cognitive change, and response modulation. We then review evidence for IPL functional and structural deficits in BD, in order to gain insights into the role of the IPL in emotion dysregulation in BD, and relevance for more precise development of interventions to improve emotion regulation in BD.