Emotion regulation deficits have been frequently observed in adults with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and bipolar disorder (BD). Numerous studies have investigated the functional network properties in ADHD and BD, however, common and distinct alterations in emotion regulation associated resting state functional connectivity (rsFC) remain understudied. The current study was performed to determine shared and disorder-specific rsFC features with emotion regulation networks (ERNs) proposed by Morawetz et al. (Neuroscience And Biobehavioral Reviews, 116, 382–395, 2020) and their association with clinical symptoms. The whole-brain seed-to-voxel functional connectivity analyses were conducted using ERN regions as seeds on neuroimaging data from the OpenfMRI project (40 ADHD, 49 BD and 49 adults from healthy control group (HC). Our findings revealed significant shared and disorder-specific rsFC circuits mainly involving emotion perception and interoceptive processing but not executive control during emotion regulation. Compared to the HC and BD groups, the ADHD group showed significant enhanced functional connectivity between inferior occipital gyrus (IOG) and lingual/fusiform gyrus as well as between superior parietal lobule (SPL) and insula. In contrast, both ADHD and BD groups exhibited decreased connectivity between the precuneus and fusiform gyrus relative to the HC. Notably, IOG–lingual/fusiform gyrus connectivity was significantly associated with fidget symptoms in the ADHD group and with YMRS scores in the BD group. Together these findings advance the understanding of shared and disorder-specific rsFC underpinnings of emotion dysregulation in adults with ADHD and BD and may inform neuroimaging-based diagnostic approaches.
