Abstract
Background: Although abnormality of cerebellar-cerebral functional connectivity at rest in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) has been hypothesized, only a few studies have investigated the neural mechanism. To verify the findings of previous studies, a large sample of patients with OCD was studied because OCD shows possible heterogeneity.Methods: Forty-seven medication-free patients with OCD and 62 healthy controls (HCs) underwent resting-state functional magnetic imaging scans. Seed-based connectivity was examined to investigate differences in cerebellar-cerebral functional connectivity in OCD patients compared with HCs. Correlations between functional connectivity and the severity of obsessive-compulsive symptoms were analyzed.Results: In OCD, we found significantly increased functional connectivity between the right lobule VI and the left precuneus, which is a component of the default mode network (DMN), compared to HCs. However, there was no correlation between the connectivity of the right lobule VI-left precuneus and obsessive-compulsive severity.Conclusions: These findings suggest that altered functional connectivity between the cerebellum and DMN might cause changes in intrinsic large-scale brain networks related to the traits of OCD.
Highlights
Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is characterized by recurrent, intrusive, and distressing thoughts and repetitive behaviors or mental acts that are executed to avoid anxiety or neutralize obsessions
We investigated the difference in functional connectivity from seed ROIs to whole brain voxels between the OCD and healthy controls (HCs) groups by using a two-sample t-test
The mean HAM-D-17 and HAM-A scores were significantly higher in the OCD group than in the HCs (p < 0.001)
Summary
Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is characterized by recurrent, intrusive, and distressing thoughts (obsessions) and repetitive behaviors or mental acts (compulsions) that are executed to avoid anxiety or neutralize obsessions. Cerebellar-Cerebral Functional Connectivity in OCD network (DMN), central executive network (CEN), and salience network (SN). DMN consists of three major subdivisions: the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, posterior cingulate cortex, and precuneus [4]. Activities in these cortical regions are decreased during task states [5]. CEN is divided into two major subdivisions, the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and posterior parietal cortex, and activity in them is increased during a wide range of cognitively demanding tasks [6, 7]. Abnormality of cerebellar-cerebral functional connectivity at rest in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) has been hypothesized, only a few studies have investigated the neural mechanism. To verify the findings of previous studies, a large sample of patients with OCD was studied because OCD shows possible heterogeneity
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