Journal
PSYCHOLOGICAL MEDICINE
Volume 50, Issue 9, Pages 1490-1500Publisher
CAMBRIDGE UNIV PRESS
DOI: 10.1017/S0033291719001429
Keywords
Goal-directed system; Granger causality analysis; habitual system; obsessive-compulsive disorder; Striatum
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Funding
- National Natural Science Foundation of China [31871113, 31671135]
- project of Shenzhen Science and Technology Innovation Committee [JCYJ20160429185235132, JCYJ20160427192001852]
- Sanming Project of Medicine in Shenzhen [SZSM201612079, SZSM201512009]
- Guangdong Province Universities and Colleges Pearl River Scholar Funded Scheme (2016)
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Background Compulsive behaviors in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) have been related to impairment within the associative cortical-striatal system connecting the caudate and prefrontal cortex that underlies consciously-controlled goal-directed learning and behavior. However, little is known whether this impairment may serve as a biomarker for vulnerability to OCD. Methods Using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we employed Granger causality analysis (GCA) to measure effective connectivity (EC) in previously validated striatal sub-regions, including the caudate, putamen, and the nucleus accumbens, in 35 OCD patients, 35 unaffected first-degree relatives and 35 matched healthy controls. Results Both OCD patients and their first-degree relatives showed greater EC than controls between the left caudate and the orbital frontal cortex (OFC). Both OCD patients and their first-degree relatives showed lower EC than controls between the left caudate and lateral prefrontal cortex. These results are consistent with findings from task-related fMRI studies which found impairment in the goal-directed system in OCD patients. Conclusions The same changes in EC were present in both OCD patients and their unaffected first-degree relatives suggest that impairment in the goal-directed learning system may be a biomarker for OCD.
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