Developmental changes in fronto-striatal glutamate and their association with functioning during inhibitory control in autism spectrum disorder and obsessive compulsive disorder

• Published in: NeuroImage clinical Vol. 30; p. 102622
• Main Authors: Hollestein, Viola, Buitelaar, Jan K., Brandeis, Daniel, Banaschewski, Tobias, Kaiser, Anna, Hohmann, Sarah, Oranje, Bob, Gooskens, Bram, Durston, Sarah, Williams, Steven C.R., Lythgoe, David J., Naaijen, Jilly
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Netherlands Elsevier Inc 01.01.2021; Elsevier
• Subjects: Compulsivity; Fronto-striatal; Glutamate; Inhibitory control; Regular; Spectroscopy; Compulsivity; Spectroscopy; Inhibitory control; Glutamate; Fronto-striatal
• ISSN: 2213-1582; 2213-1582
• DOI: 10.1016/j.nicl.2021.102622

•Multi-center, longitudinal, transdiagnostic study of glutamate and neural activity.•Differing roles of glutamate on activity in striatum during inhibitory control.•Glutamate concentrations in ACC decrease over time in ASD adolescents.•Differing neural mechanisms of compulsivity in OCD and repetitive behaviors in ASD. Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) show overlapping symptomatology and deficits in inhibitory control, which are associated with altered functioning and glutamatergic signaling in fronto-striatal circuitry. These parameters have never been examined together. The purpose of the current study was to investigate functioning during inhibitory control and its association with fronto-striatal glutamate concentrations across these disorders using a multi-center, longitudinal approach. Adolescents with ASD (n = 24), OCD (n = 15) and controls (n = 35) underwent two magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) sessions with a one-year interval. This included proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1H-MRS; n = 74) and functional MRI during an inhibitory control task (n = 53). We investigated 1H-MRS data and fMRI data separately as well as integrated in a multimodal analysis using linear models focusing on diagnosis and continuous measures of overlapping compulsivity symptoms. ACC glutamate was reduced over time in the ASD group compared with controls, while striatal glutamate decreased over time independent of diagnosis. Increased compulsive behavior seemed to be associated with increased striatal activity during failed inhibitory control. The integrated analyses showed differential involvement of increased striatal glutamate during failed but decreased striatal glutamate during successful inhibitory control in the OCD group compared to controls and ASD, suggesting different underlying mechanisms for OCD compared to ASD.