William I A Haynes1, Anne-Hélène Clair2, Sara Fernandez-Vidal3, Bahar Gholipour3, Margot Morgiève2, Luc Mallet4. 1. Sorbonne Universités, UPMC Univ Paris 06, Inserm, CNRS, Institut du Cerveau et de la Moelle épinière (ICM), F-75013, Paris, France; Université Paris Descartes, Sorbonne Paris Cité, Faculté de Médecine, F-75006, Paris, France; Fondation FondaMental, Hôpital Albert Chenevier, F-94000, Créteil, France. Electronic address: william.haynes@inserm.fr. 2. Sorbonne Universités, UPMC Univ Paris 06, Inserm, CNRS, Institut du Cerveau et de la Moelle épinière (ICM), F-75013, Paris, France; Fondation FondaMental, Hôpital Albert Chenevier, F-94000, Créteil, France. 3. Sorbonne Universités, UPMC Univ Paris 06, Inserm, CNRS, Institut du Cerveau et de la Moelle épinière (ICM), F-75013, Paris, France. 4. Sorbonne Universités, UPMC Univ Paris 06, Inserm, CNRS, Institut du Cerveau et de la Moelle épinière (ICM), F-75013, Paris, France; Fondation FondaMental, Hôpital Albert Chenevier, F-94000, Créteil, France; Pôle de Psychiatrie et d'Addictologie - Service de Neurochirurgie, Personalized Neurology & Psychiatry University Department, Hôpitaux Universitaires Henri Mondor - Albert Chenevier, F-94000, Créteil, France.
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Current neurocognitive models suppose dysfunctions of associative and limbic cortico-basal ganglia circuits to be at the core of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). As little is known about the state of underlying anatomical connections, we investigated whether these connections were reduced and/or not properly organised in OCD patients compared to control. METHODS: Diffusion magnetic resonance images were obtained in 37 OCD patients with predominant checking symptoms and 37 matched healthy controls. We developed indices to characterise the quantity (spatial extent and density) and the organisation (topography and segregation) of 24 anatomical connections between associative and limbic cortical (anterior cingulate, dorsolateral prefrontal, orbitofrontal cortices and the frontal pole), and subcortical (caudate nucleus, putamen and thalamus) areas in each hemisphere. RESULTS: Associative and limbic cortico-basal-ganglia connections were reduced in OCD patients compared to controls: 19/24 connections had a reduced subcortical spatial extent, 9/24 had a reduced density. Moreover, while the general topography was conserved, the different cortical projection fields in the striatum and thalamus were hyper-segregated in OCD patients compared to controls. CONCLUSION: These quantitative and qualitative differences of anatomical connections go beyond the current model of a reduced cortical control of automatic behaviour stored in the basal ganglia. The hyper-segregation in OCD could also impair the integration of cortical information in the thalamus and striatum and distort the subsequent behavioural selection process. This provides new working hypotheses for functional and behavioural studies on OCD.
BACKGROUND: Current neurocognitive models suppose dysfunctions of associative and limbic cortico-basal ganglia circuits to be at the core of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). As little is known about the state of underlying anatomical connections, we investigated whether these connections were reduced and/or not properly organised in OCDpatients compared to control. METHODS: Diffusion magnetic resonance images were obtained in 37 OCDpatients with predominant checking symptoms and 37 matched healthy controls. We developed indices to characterise the quantity (spatial extent and density) and the organisation (topography and segregation) of 24 anatomical connections between associative and limbic cortical (anterior cingulate, dorsolateral prefrontal, orbitofrontal cortices and the frontal pole), and subcortical (caudate nucleus, putamen and thalamus) areas in each hemisphere. RESULTS: Associative and limbic cortico-basal-ganglia connections were reduced in OCDpatients compared to controls: 19/24 connections had a reduced subcortical spatial extent, 9/24 had a reduced density. Moreover, while the general topography was conserved, the different cortical projection fields in the striatum and thalamus were hyper-segregated in OCDpatients compared to controls. CONCLUSION: These quantitative and qualitative differences of anatomical connections go beyond the current model of a reduced cortical control of automatic behaviour stored in the basal ganglia. The hyper-segregation in OCD could also impair the integration of cortical information in the thalamus and striatum and distort the subsequent behavioural selection process. This provides new working hypotheses for functional and behavioural studies on OCD.
Authors: Mélanie Lagière; Marion Bosc; Sara Whitestone; Abdelhamid Benazzouz; Abdeslam Chagraoui; Mark J Millan; Philippe De Deurwaerdère Journal: Int J Mol Sci Date: 2020-11-12 Impact factor: 5.923