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Aberrant functional connectivity of neural circuits associated with thought-action fusion in patients with obsessive–compulsive disorder

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 November 2020

Sang Won Lee ,
Huijin Song ,
Tae Yang Jang ,
Hyunsil Cha ,
Eunji Kim ,
Yongmin Chang  and
Seung Jae Lee Open the ORCID record for Seung Jae Lee [Opens in a new window]
Sang Won Lee
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Kyungpook National University Chilgok Hospital, Daegu, Korea Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, Kyungpook National University, Daegu, Korea
Huijin Song
Affiliation:
Biomedical Research Institute, Seoul National University Hospital, Seoul, Korea
Tae Yang Jang
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, Kyungpook National University, Daegu, Korea Department of Psychiatry, Kyungpook National University Hospital, Daegu, Korea
Hyunsil Cha
Affiliation:
Department of Medical & Biological Engineering, Kyungpook National University, Daegu, Korea
Eunji Kim
Affiliation:
Department of Medical & Biological Engineering, Kyungpook National University, Daegu, Korea
Yongmin Chang
Affiliation:
Department of Molecular Medicine, School of Medicine, Kyungpook National University, Daegu, Korea Department of Radiology, Kyungpook National University Hospital, Daegu, Korea
Seung Jae Lee*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, Kyungpook National University, Daegu, Korea Department of Psychiatry, Kyungpook National University Hospital, Daegu, Korea
*
Authors for correspondence: Seung Jae Lee, E-mail: [email protected]; Yongmin Chang, E-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

Background

Cognitive theories of obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD) stress the importance of dysfunctional beliefs in the development and maintenance of the disorder. However, a neurobiological understanding of these cognitive models, including thought-action fusion (TAF), is surprisingly lacking. Thus, this functional magnetic resonance imaging study aimed to investigate whether altered functional connectivity (FC) is associated with the TAF paradigm in OCD patients.

Methods

Forty-one OCD patients and 47 healthy controls (HCs) participated in a functional magnetic resonance imaging study using a TAF task, in which they were asked to read the name of a close or a neutral person in association with positive and negative statements.

Results

The conventional TAF condition (negative statements/close person) induced significant FC between the regions of interest (ROIs) identified using multivoxel pattern analysis and the visual association areas, default mode network subregions, affective processing, and several subcortical regions in both groups. Notably, sparser FC was observed in OCD patients. Further analysis confined to the cortico-striato-thalamo-cortical (CSTC) and affective networks demonstrated that OCD patients exhibited reduced ROI FC with affective regions and greater ROI FC with CSTC components in the TAF condition compared to HCs. Within the OCD patients, middle cingulate cortex–insula FC was correlated with TAF and responsibility scores.

Conclusions

Our TAF paradigm revealed altered context-dependent engagement of the CSTC and affective networks in OCD patients. These findings suggest that the neurobiology of cognitive models corresponds to current neuroanatomical models of OCD. Further, they elucidate the underlying neurobiological mechanisms of OCD at the circuit-based level.

Keywords

Affective networkcognitive theorycortico-striato-thalamo-cortical networkfunctional connectivityobsessive–compulsive disorderthought-action fusion
Type
Original Article
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 52 , Issue 11 , August 2022 , pp. 2106 - 2115
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press

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Footnotes

*

These authors equally contributed to the work.

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