Maria Suñol1, Cristina Saiz-Masvidal2, Oren Contreras-Rodríguez3, Dídac Macià4, Gerard Martínez-Vilavella5, Ignacio Martínez-Zalacaín2, José Manuel Menchón1, Jesús Pujol6, Jordi Sunyer7, Carles Soriano-Mas8. 1. Hospital Universitari de Bellvitge, Institut d'Investigació Biomèdica de Bellvitge-IDIBELL, L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, Barcelona, Spain; Instituto de Salud Carlos III-Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Salud Mental (CIBERSAM), Barcelona, Spain; Facultat de Medicina i Ciències de la Salut, Universitat de Barcelona, Spain. 2. Hospital Universitari de Bellvitge, Institut d'Investigació Biomèdica de Bellvitge-IDIBELL, L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, Barcelona, Spain; Facultat de Medicina i Ciències de la Salut, Universitat de Barcelona, Spain. 3. Hospital Universitari de Bellvitge, Institut d'Investigació Biomèdica de Bellvitge-IDIBELL, L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, Barcelona, Spain; Instituto de Salud Carlos III-Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Salud Mental (CIBERSAM), Barcelona, Spain. 4. Facultat de Medicina i Ciències de la Salut, Universitat de Barcelona, Spain; Institut Guttmann of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Badalona, Spain. 5. MRI Research Unit, Hospital del Mar, Barcelona, Spain. 6. Instituto de Salud Carlos III-Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Salud Mental (CIBERSAM), Barcelona, Spain; MRI Research Unit, Hospital del Mar, Barcelona, Spain. 7. Institut de Salut Global de Barcelona (ISGLOBAL), Centre de Recerca en Epidemiologia Ambiental (CREAL), Barcelona, Spain; Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain; Instituto de Salud Carlos III-Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Epidemiología y Salud Pública (CIBERESP), Barcelona, Spain; Institut Hospital del Mar d'Investigacions Mèdiques (IMIM), Barcelona, Spain. 8. Hospital Universitari de Bellvitge, Institut d'Investigació Biomèdica de Bellvitge-IDIBELL, L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, Barcelona, Spain; Instituto de Salud Carlos III-Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Salud Mental (CIBERSAM), Barcelona, Spain; Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain. Electronic address: csoriano@idibell.cat.
Abstract
OBJECTIVE: Commonly observed subclinical obsessive-compulsive symptoms in healthy children may predispose to obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Therefore, investigating the underlying neurobiology may be relevant to identify alterations in specific brain circuits potentially accounting for clinical heterogeneity in OCD without the confounding effects of clinical samples. We analyzed the brain correlates of different obsessive-compulsive symptoms in a large group of healthy children using functional connectivity measures. METHOD: We evaluated 227 healthy children (52% girls; mean [SD] age 9.71 [0.86] years; range, 8-12.1 years). Participants underwent clinical assessment with the Obsessive-Compulsive Inventory-Child Version and a resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging examination. Total and symptom-specific severity were correlated with voxelwise global functional connectivity degree values. Significant clusters were then used as seeds of interest in seed-to-voxel analyses. Modulating effects of age and sex were also assessed. RESULTS: Global functional connectivity of the left ventral putamen and medial dorsal thalamus correlated negatively with total obsessive-compulsive symptom severity. Seed-to-voxel analyses revealed specific negative correlations from these clusters with limbic, sensorimotor, and insular regions in association with obsessing, ordering, and doubt-checking symptoms, respectively. Hoarding symptoms were associated with negative correlations between the left medial dorsal thalamus and a widespread pattern of regions, with such associations modulated by sex and age. CONCLUSION: Our findings concur with prevailing neurobiological models of OCD on the importance of cortico-striato-thalamo-cortical dysfunction to account for symptom severity. Notably, we showed that changes in cortico-striato-thalamo-cortical connectivity are present at subclinical stages, which may result in an increased vulnerability for OCD. Moreover, we mapped different symptom dimensions onto specific cortico-striato-thalamo-cortical circuit attributes.
OBJECTIVE: Commonly observed subclinical obsessive-compulsive symptoms in healthy children may predispose to obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Therefore, investigating the underlying neurobiology may be relevant to identify alterations in specific brain circuits potentially accounting for clinical heterogeneity in OCD without the confounding effects of clinical samples. We analyzed the brain correlates of different obsessive-compulsive symptoms in a large group of healthy children using functional connectivity measures. METHOD: We evaluated 227 healthy children (52% girls; mean [SD] age 9.71 [0.86] years; range, 8-12.1 years). Participants underwent clinical assessment with the Obsessive-Compulsive Inventory-Child Version and a resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging examination. Total and symptom-specific severity were correlated with voxelwise global functional connectivity degree values. Significant clusters were then used as seeds of interest in seed-to-voxel analyses. Modulating effects of age and sex were also assessed. RESULTS: Global functional connectivity of the left ventral putamen and medial dorsal thalamus correlated negatively with total obsessive-compulsive symptom severity. Seed-to-voxel analyses revealed specific negative correlations from these clusters with limbic, sensorimotor, and insular regions in association with obsessing, ordering, and doubt-checking symptoms, respectively. Hoarding symptoms were associated with negative correlations between the left medial dorsal thalamus and a widespread pattern of regions, with such associations modulated by sex and age. CONCLUSION: Our findings concur with prevailing neurobiological models of OCD on the importance of cortico-striato-thalamo-cortical dysfunction to account for symptom severity. Notably, we showed that changes in cortico-striato-thalamo-cortical connectivity are present at subclinical stages, which may result in an increased vulnerability for OCD. Moreover, we mapped different symptom dimensions onto specific cortico-striato-thalamo-cortical circuit attributes.
Authors: Elizabeth Shephard; Marcelo C Batistuzzo; Marcelo Q Hoexter; Emily R Stern; Pedro F Zuccolo; Carolina Y Ogawa; Renata M Silva; Andre R Brunoni; Daniel L Costa; Victoria Doretto; Leonardo Saraiva; Carolina Cappi; Roseli G Shavitt; H Blair Simpson; Odile A van den Heuvel; Euripedes C Miguel Journal: Braz J Psychiatry Date: 2022 Mar-Abr