Inverse Association Between Resting-State Putamen Activity and Iowa Gambling Task Performance in Patients With Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder and Control Subjects

• Published in: Frontiers in psychiatry Vol. 13; p. 836965
• Main Authors: Hasuzawa, Suguru, Tomiyama, Hirofumi, Murayama, Keitaro, Ohno, Aikana, Kang, Mingi, Mizobe, Taro, Kato, Kenta, Matsuo, Akira, Kikuchi, Kazufumi, Togao, Osamu, Nakao, Tomohiro
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland Frontiers Media S.A 13.05.2022
• Subjects: decision-making; fractional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (fALFF); Iowa Gambling Task (IGT); obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD); Psychiatry; putamen; resting-state functional MRI; obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD); Iowa Gambling Task (IGT); decision-making; putamen; resting-state functional MRI; fractional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (fALFF)
• ISSN: 1664-0640; 1664-0640
• DOI: 10.3389/fpsyt.2022.836965

Symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) have been conceptualized as manifestations of decision-making deficits. Patients with OCD exhibit impairment during the decision-making process, as assessed by the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT). This impairment is independent of clinical severity and disease progression. However, the association between the decision-making deficit and resting-state brain activity of patients with OCD has not been examined. Fifty unmedicated patients with OCD and 55 matched control subjects completed IGT. Resting-state brain activity was examined using the fractional amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations (fALFFs). fALFF analysis focused on the slow-4 and 5 bands. Group comparisons were performed to determine the association between IGT performance and fALFFs. There was a significant group difference in the association between the IGT total net score and slow-4 fALFFs in the left putamen (voxel height threshold of < 0.001; cluster size threshold of < 0.05; family wise error-corrected). Higher putamen slow-4 fALFFs were correlated with lower IGT scores for OCD patients ( = -0.485; < 0.0005) and higher IGT scores for control subjects ( = 0.402; < 0.005). There was no group difference in the association between the IGT total net score and slow-5 fALFFs. These findings in unmedicated patients demonstrate the importance of resting-state putamen activity for decision-making deficit associated with OCD, as measured by IGT. The inverse correlation may be explained by the hypersensitive response of the putamen in patients with OCD.