Aberrant rich club organization in patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder and their unaffected first-degree relatives

Ziwen Peng; Xinyi Yang; Chuanyong Xu; Xiangshu Wu; Qiong Yang; Zhen Wei; Zihan Zhou; Tom Verguts; Qi Chen

NeuroImage: Clinical (Jan 2021)

Aberrant rich club organization in patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder and their unaffected first-degree relatives

Ziwen Peng,
Xinyi Yang,
Chuanyong Xu,
Xiangshu Wu,
Qiong Yang,
Zhen Wei,
Zihan Zhou,
Tom Verguts,
Qi Chen

Affiliations

Ziwen Peng: Key Laboratory of Brain, Cognition and Education Sciences, Ministry of Education China, School of Psychology, Center for Studies of Psychological Application, And Guangdong Key Laboratory of Mental Health and Cognitive Science, South China Normal University, China; Corresponding authors at: School of Psychology, South China Normal University, No. 55, West of Zhongshan Avenue, Guangzhou 510631, China.
Xinyi Yang: Key Laboratory of Brain, Cognition and Education Sciences, Ministry of Education China, School of Psychology, Center for Studies of Psychological Application, And Guangdong Key Laboratory of Mental Health and Cognitive Science, South China Normal University, China
Chuanyong Xu: Key Laboratory of Brain, Cognition and Education Sciences, Ministry of Education China, School of Psychology, Center for Studies of Psychological Application, And Guangdong Key Laboratory of Mental Health and Cognitive Science, South China Normal University, China
Xiangshu Wu: Key Laboratory of Brain, Cognition and Education Sciences, Ministry of Education China, School of Psychology, Center for Studies of Psychological Application, And Guangdong Key Laboratory of Mental Health and Cognitive Science, South China Normal University, China
Qiong Yang: Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, China; Affiliated Brain Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou, China
Zhen Wei: Department of Child Psychiatry and Rehabilitation, Affiliated Shenzhen Maternity & Child Healthcare Hospital, Southern Medical University, Shenzhen, China
Zihan Zhou: Key Laboratory of Brain, Cognition and Education Sciences, Ministry of Education China, School of Psychology, Center for Studies of Psychological Application, And Guangdong Key Laboratory of Mental Health and Cognitive Science, South China Normal University, China
Tom Verguts: Department of Experimental Psychology, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
Qi Chen: Key Laboratory of Brain, Cognition and Education Sciences, Ministry of Education China, School of Psychology, Center for Studies of Psychological Application, And Guangdong Key Laboratory of Mental Health and Cognitive Science, South China Normal University, China; Corresponding authors at: School of Psychology, South China Normal University, No. 55, West of Zhongshan Avenue, Guangzhou 510631, China.

Journal volume & issue: Vol. 32
p. 102808

Abstract

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Recent studies suggested that the rich club organization promoting global brain communication and integration of information, may be abnormally increased in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). However, the structural and functional basis of this organization is still not very clear. Given the heritability of OCD, as suggested by previous family-based studies, we hypothesize that aberrant rich club organization may be a trait marker for OCD. In the present study, 32 patients with OCD, 30 unaffected first-degree relatives (FDR) and 32 healthy controls (HC) underwent diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). We examined the structural rich club organization and its interrelationship with functional coupling. Our results showed that rich club and peripheral connection strength in patients with OCD was lower than in HC, while it was intermediate in FDR. Finally, the coupling between structural and functional connections of the rich club, was decreased in FDR but not in OCD relative to HC, which suggests a buffering mechanism of brain functions in FDR. Overall, our findings suggest that alteration of the rich club organization may reflect a vulnerability biomarker for OCD, possibly buffered by structural and functional coupling of the rich club.

Published in NeuroImage: Clinical

ISSN: 2213-1582 (Online)
Publisher: Elsevier
Country of publisher: Netherlands
LCC subjects: Medicine: Medicine (General): Computer applications to medicine. Medical informatics; Medicine: Internal medicine: Neurosciences. Biological psychiatry. Neuropsychiatry: Neurology. Diseases of the nervous system
Website: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/neuroimage-clinical/

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