Altered spontaneous brain activity in obsessive-compulsive personality disorder

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Psychiatry
• Medical Imaging

Background:

• Obsessive-compulsive personality disorder (OCPD) is a common personality disorder.
• The underlying neural mechanisms of OCPD are not well understood.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate spontaneous brain activity in OCPD patients using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).
• To compare brain activity patterns between OCPD patients and healthy controls (HC).

Main Methods:

• Resting-state fMRI data collected from 37 OCPD patients and 37 matched HC.
• Analysis of amplitudes of low-frequency fluctuation (ALFF) to assess spontaneous neural activity.
• Correlation analysis between regional ALFF and OCPD severity.

Main Results:

• OCPD patients exhibited altered ALFF in several brain regions compared to HC.
• Increased ALFF observed in bilateral caudate, left precuneus, left insula, and left medial superior frontal gyrus.
• Decreased ALFF found in the right fusiform gyrus and left lingual gyrus; left precuneus ALFF correlated with OCPD severity.

Conclusions:

• OCPD patients display altered spontaneous neural activity, suggesting distinct pathophysiological mechanisms.
• These neural alterations may contribute to OCPD symptoms such as cognitive inflexibility, reduced empathy, and visual attention bias.