Electrophysiological mechanism of executive function deficits in obsessive-compulsive disorder: An EEG microstates
Gangxuan Yuan1, Yaqi Li2, Qihong Chen3
1Key Laboratory of Brain, Cognition and Education Sciences, South China Normal University, Ministry of Education, Guangzhou, 510631, Guangdong Province, China; Guangdong Key Laboratory of Mental Health and Cognitive Science, School of Psychology, Center for Studies of Psychological Application, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, 510631, Guangdong Province, China; Doctoral School of Education, University of Szeged, 6722, Szeged, Hungary.
Background:
Executive dysfunction is a common feature in patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), yet its underlying electrophysiological mechanisms remain incompletely understood. This study aimed to investigate the characteristics of Electroencephalography (EEG) microstates in patients with OCD while they performed executive-function tasks.
Methods:
Eighty-five patients with OCD and 86 healthy controls (HC) completed the Task-Switching Paradigm, Stop-Signal Task, and N-back task, which assess shifting, inhibition, and working memory updating functions, respectively. EEG data were recorded and analyzed utilizing microstate and standardized low-resolution brain electromagnetic tomography (sLORETA) methods.
Results:
Patients with OCD exhibited impairments across all three executive function tasks. EEG microstate analysis revealed abnormal neural dynamics in the OCD group. Specifically, OCD patients showed a shorter duration of a frontal-parietal executive microstate and prolonged dominance of a precuneus-related microstate, reflecting altered large-scale network activity. Source localization further indicated decreased activation in parietal lobes and increased precuneus activation in OCD during shifting, overactivation of occipital-parietal regions but reduced frontal engagement during response inhibition, and reduced frontal-parietal activation during working memory updating.
Conclusion:
OCD is associated with broad disruptions in executive functions, accompanied by aberrant spatiotemporal brain dynamics. Our findings indicate that patients' difficulties in shifting, inhibition, and updating are tightly linked to abnormal EEG microstate patterns and altered regional brain activations, highlighting the utility of high-temporal-resolution EEG measures in probing the neural mechanisms of OCD.
More Related Videos
06:40Microstate and Omega Complexity Analyses of the Resting-state Electroencephalography
Published on: June 15, 2018
09:14Exploring the Neural Correlates of Cognitive Reappraisal in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder Using Task-based Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Published on: March 14, 2025
