Electrophysiological dynamics of visuocortical processing in hoarding disorder

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Psychiatry
• Cognitive Science

Background:

• Individuals with hoarding disorder (HD) exhibit visual perception deficits.
• Neuroimaging reveals inefficient visual processing in HD, but the timing is unclear.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the temporal dynamics of visual processing inefficiencies in HD.
• To identify neurophysiological mechanisms underlying visual dysfunction in HD using event-related potentials (ERPs).

Main Methods:

• 33 individuals with HD and 35 healthy controls (HC) underwent EEG during a modified flanker task.
• Permutation-controlled analyses identified group differences in visual evoked potentials (VEPs) on a millisecond-to-millisecond basis.
• Bayesian ANCOVAs and regressions analyzed VEPs, controlling for age, depression, and anxiety.

Main Results:

• Significant amplitude differences between HD and HC were observed at 175 ms (N1), 270 ms (P1/N2), and 440 ms (LNSW).
• After controlling for covariates, HD showed enhanced N1 and attenuated LNSW amplitudes compared to HC.
• Age interacted with hoarding status for N1 and LNSW, suggesting age-dependent visual processing alterations in HD.

Conclusions:

• Visual processing alterations in HD manifest in middle and later stages (after 170 ms), specifically affecting visuocortical reactivity.
• Early visual processing stages do not appear to be the primary source of visual dysfunction in HD.
• Findings highlight the temporal unfolding of visual inefficiencies in hoarding disorder, implicating occipitotemporal visual cortex functions.