Background
Exaggerated concern for correct performance has been linked to hyperactivity of the
medial frontal cortex (MFC) in adult obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), but the
role of the MFC during the early course of illness remains poorly understood. We tested
whether hyperactive MFC-based performance monitoring function relates to altered MFC
connectivity within task control and default mode networks in pediatric patients.
Methods
Eighteen pairs of OCD and matched healthy youth underwent functional magnetic resonance
imaging during performance monitoring and at rest. Task-related hyperactivations in
the posterior and ventral MFC were used as seeds for connectivity analyses during
task and resting state.
Results
In posterior MFC, patients showed greater activation of dorsal anterior cingulate
cortex (dACC) than control subjects, with greater activation predicting worse performance.
In ventral MFC, control subjects exhibited deactivation, whereas patients activated
this region. Compared with control subjects, patients showed increased dACC-ventral
MFC connectivity during task and decreased dACC-right anterior operculum and ventral
MFC-posterior cingulate connectivity during rest.
Conclusions
Excessive activation and increased interactions of posterior and ventral MFC during
performance monitoring may combine with reduced resting state connectivity of these
regions within networks for task control and default mode to reflect early markers
of OCD. Alteration of reciprocal interactions between these networks could potentiate
the intrusion of ventral MFC-based affectively laden, self-referential thoughts, while
disrupting posterior MFC-based performance-monitoring function in young patients.
Key Words
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: October 15, 2010
Accepted:
August 4,
2010
Received in revised form:
August 2,
2010
Received:
April 7,
2010
Identification
Copyright
© 2009 Society of Biological Psychiatry. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
