AUTHOR=Murayama Keitaro , Tomiyama Hirofumi , Tsuruta Sae , Ohono Aikana , Kang Mingi , Hasuzawa Suguru , Mizobe Taro , Kato Kenta , Togao Osamu , Hiwatashi Akio , Nakao Tomohiro 

TITLE=Aberrant Resting-State Cerebellar-Cerebral Functional Connectivity in Unmedicated Patients With Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Psychiatry

VOLUME=12

YEAR=2021

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychiatry/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2021.659616

DOI=10.3389/fpsyt.2021.659616

ISSN=1664-0640

ABSTRACT=<p><bold>Background:</bold> Although abnormality of cerebellar-cerebral functional connectivity at rest in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) has been hypothesized, only a few studies have investigated the neural mechanism. To verify the findings of previous studies, a large sample of patients with OCD was studied because OCD shows possible heterogeneity.</p><p><bold>Methods:</bold> Forty-seven medication-free patients with OCD and 62 healthy controls (HCs) underwent resting-state functional magnetic imaging scans. Seed-based connectivity was examined to investigate differences in cerebellar-cerebral functional connectivity in OCD patients compared with HCs. Correlations between functional connectivity and the severity of obsessive-compulsive symptoms were analyzed.</p><p><bold>Results:</bold> In OCD, we found significantly increased functional connectivity between the right lobule VI and the left precuneus, which is a component of the default mode network (DMN), compared to HCs. However, there was no correlation between the connectivity of the right lobule VI-left precuneus and obsessive-compulsive severity.</p><p><bold>Conclusions:</bold> These findings suggest that altered functional connectivity between the cerebellum and DMN might cause changes in intrinsic large-scale brain networks related to the traits of OCD.</p>