Gray matter morphological abnormities are constrained by normal structural covariance network in OCD.

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Psychiatry
• Brain Imaging

Background:

• Abnormal gray matter morphology is linked to brain network architecture in various disorders.
• The relationship between gray matter changes and brain networks in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is not well understood.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the association between gray matter abnormalities and structural covariance network architecture in OCD.
• To identify potential disease epicenters in the brain's network that correlate with OCD-related morphological changes.

Main Methods:

• Compared gray matter morphology in 98 medication-naive, first-episode OCD patients and 130 healthy controls (HCs).
• Used backward stepwise regression analysis to identify brain regions (putative disease epicenters) in HCs whose structural connectome profiles matched the observed morphological differences in OCD patients.

Main Results:

• A set of brain regions, involved in high-order cognition and sensory/motor processing, were identified as putative disease epicenters.
• The structural connectome architecture of these epicenters explained 59.94% of the variance in morphological abnormalities.
• Brain regions with stronger structural connections to these epicenters showed increased vulnerability.

Conclusions:

• Gray matter abnormalities in OCD are constrained by the brain's structural connectome.
• Findings offer new insights into the potential pathological progression of OCD, highlighting the role of network architecture.