Frontiers in Psychiatry (Sep 2020)

Decreased Resting-State Interhemispheric Functional Connectivity in Medication-Free Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

  • Cuicui Jia,
  • Yangpan Ou,
  • Yunhui Chen,
  • Ping Li,
  • Dan Lv,
  • Ru Yang,
  • Zhaoxi Zhong,
  • Lei Sun,
  • Yuhua Wang,
  • Guangfeng Zhang,
  • Hong Guo,
  • Zhenghai Sun,
  • Wei Wang,
  • Yefu Wang,
  • Xiaoping Wang,
  • Wenbin Guo

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2020.559729
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 11

Abstract

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ObjectiveDecreased homotopic connectivity of brain networks such as the cortico-striato-thalamo-cortical (CSTC) circuits may contribute to the pathophysiology of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). However, little is known about interhemispheric functional connectivity (FC) at rest in OCD. In this study, the voxel-mirrored homotopic connectivity (VMHC) method was applied to explore interhemispheric coordination at rest in OCD.MethodsForty medication-free patients with OCD and 38 sex-, age-, and education level-matched healthy controls (HCs) underwent a resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging. The VMHC and support vector machine (SVM) methods were used to analyze the data.ResultsPatients with OCD had remarkably decreased VMHC values in the orbitofrontal cortex, thalamus, middle occipital gyrus, and precentral and postcentral gyri compared with HCs. A combination of the VMHC values in the thalamus and postcentral gyrus could optimally distinguish patients with OCD from HCs.ConclusionsOur findings highlight the contribution of decreased interhemispheric FC within and outside the CSTC circuits in OCD and provide evidence to the pathophysiology of OCD.

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