Reduced dorsolateral prefrontal cortical hemodynamic response in adult obsessive-compulsive disorder as measured by near-infrared spectroscopy during the verbal fluency task

Abstract

BackgroundNear-infrared spectroscopy has helped our understanding of the neurobiological mechanisms of psychiatric disorders and has advantages including noninvasiveness, lower cost, and ease of use compared with other imaging techniques, like functional magnetic resonance imaging. The verbal fluency task is the most common and well established task used to assess cognitive activation during near-infrared spectroscopy. Recent functional neuroimaging studies have shown that the orbitofrontal cortex and other brain regions, including the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, may play important roles in the pathophysiology of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). This study aimed to evaluate hemodynamic responses in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in patients with OCD using near-infrared spectroscopy during the verbal fluency task and to compare these with dorsolateral prefrontal cortex responses in healthy controls.MethodsTwenty patients with OCD and 20 controls matched for age, gender, handedness, and estimated intelligence quotient participated in this study. The verbal fluency task was used to elicit near-infrared spectroscopic activation and consisted of a 30-second pre-task, followed by three repetitions of a 20-second verbal fluency task (total 60 seconds), followed by a 70-second post-task period. The near-infrared spectroscopy experiment was conducted on the same day as surveys of obsessive-compulsive symptoms, depression, and anxiety. Z-scores for changes in the concentration of oxygenated hemoglobin were compared between the OCD patients and controls in 14 channels set over the left and right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and frontopolar areas.ResultsDuring the verbal fluency task, significant task-related activation was detected in both the OCD group and the controls. Changes in oxygenated hemoglobin concentration in the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex were significantly smaller in the OCD group than in the controls, but were not statistically significant after correction for multiple comparisons.ConclusionPatients with OCD have reduced prefrontal, especially right dorsolateral prefrontal, cortical hemodynamic responses as measured by near-infrared spectroscopy during the verbal fluency task. These results support the hypothesis that the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex plays a role in the pathophysiology of OCD.

Near-Infrared Spectroscopy during the Verbal Fluency Task before and after Treatment with Image Exposure and SSRI Therapy in Patients with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

“…The present result is consistent with the results of previous NIRS studies that patients with OCD showed decreased prefrontal hemodynamic responses [ 13 , 14 ]. In this patient with OCD, SSRI treatment with exposure therapy was symptomatically effective, and NIRS findings showed improvement of brain function in the temporal and frontal lobes after treatment.…”

The Utility of Electromagnetic Activity Measures in Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and Schizophrenia

“…Overall, although the electrophysiological literature is sparse, both EEG and MEG data support other functional imaging modalities (Beucke et al 2013; [104] in their implication of elements of a frontocortical, striatal, thalamic circuit with involvement of limbic regions, in line with current neural model of OCD [105].…”

Attenuation of Compulsive-Like Behavior Through Positive Allosteric Modulation of α4β2 Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptors in Non-Induced Compulsive-Like Mice

“…Separate brain regions and signaling pathways influencing compulsive-like and anxiety-like symptoms are most likely the explanation for the observed lack of a dFBr effect in the OF test. Anxiety is attributed primarily to the amygdala and ventral hippocampus (McHugh et al, 2004), whereas compulsions and obsessions have been linked to dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (Hirosawa et al, 2013), anterior cingulate cortex (Fitzgerald et al, 2005), orbitofrontal cortex (Beucke et al, 2013) and dysregulation of the corticostriatal-thalamo-cortical circuitry (CSTC; Ting and Feng, 2011). These regions receive projections from the amygdala and hippocampus (McDonald, 1991; Eblen and Graybiel, 1995; Welch et al, 2007; Toyoda et al, 2011; Chen and Etkin, 2013) explaining the co-existence of anxiety along with OCD, which appears to be specific to anxiety related to compulsive-like behaviors rather than more generalized anxiety.…”