RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Resting-state functional connectivity abnormalities in patients with obsessive–compulsive disorder and their healthy first-degree relatives
JF Journal of Psychiatry and Neuroscience
JO J Psychiatry Neurosci
FD Canadian Medical Association
SP 304
OP 311
DO 10.1503/jpn.130220
VO 39
IS 5
A1 Jing-Ming Hou
A1 Ming Zhao
A1 Wei Zhang
A1 Ling-Heng Song
A1 Wen-Jing Wu
A1 Jian Wang
A1 Dai-Quan Zhou
A1 Bing Xie
A1 Mei He
A1 Jun-Wei Guo
A1 Wei Qu
A1 Hai-Tao Li
YR 2014
UL http://jpn.ca/content/39/5/304.abstract
AB Background: Obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD) is a common, heritable neuropsychiatric disorder, hypothetically underpinned by dysfunction of brain cortical–striatal–thalamic–cortical (CSTC) circuits; however, the extent of brain functional abnormalities in individuals with OCD is unclear, and the genetic basis of this disorder is poorly understood. We determined the whole brain functional connectivity patterns in patients with OCD and their healthy first-degree relatives.Methods: We used resting-state fMRI to measure functional connectivity strength in patients with OCD, their healthy first-degree relatives and healthy controls. Whole brain functional networks were constructed by measuring the temporal correlations of all brain voxel pairs and further analyzed using a graph theory approach.Results: We enrolled 39 patients with OCD, 20 healthy first-degree relatives and 39 healthy controls in our study. Compared with healthy controls, patients with OCD showed increased functional connectivity primarily within the CSTC circuits and decreased functional connectivity in the occipital cortex, temporal cortex and cerebellum. Moreover, patients with OCD and their first-degree relatives exhibited overlapping increased functional connectivity strength in the bilateral caudate nucleus, left orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) and left middle temporal gyrus.Limitations: Potential confounding factors, such as medication use, heterogeneity in symptom clusters and comorbid disorders, may have impacted our findings.Conclusion: Our preliminary results suggest that patients with OCD have abnormal resting-state functional connectivity that is not limited to CSTC circuits and involves abnormalities in additional large-scale brain systems, especially the limbic system. Moreover, resting-state functional connectivity strength abnormalities in the left OFC, bilateral caudate nucleus and left middle temporal gyrus may be neuroimaging endophenotypes for OCD.