The purpose of this study is to examine the brain functioning of children and adolescent with OCD before and after treatment with Exposure and Response Prevention (EXRP) therapy.
The capacity to coordinate thoughts and actions to execute goal-directed behaviors (cognitive control) and the capacity to anticipate, respond to, and learn from reward (reward processing) are key processes for human behavior. Dysfunction in these processes has been hypothesized to contribute to repetitive thoughts and behaviors in many disorders, including obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), Tourette Syndrome (TS), and eating disorders. The investigators will use multimodal imaging to investigate neural circuits that support cognitive control and reward processing, using pediatric OCD as a model system. The short-term goal is to clarify how circuit-based abnormalities contribute to repetitive thoughts/behaviors; these data will inform future trans-diagnostic studies. The long-term goal is to identify control and reward circuit-abnormalities as targets for new trans-diagnostic treatments.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
NON_RANDOMIZED
Purpose
OTHER
Masking
NONE
Enrollment
55
CBT treatment consisted of 12-16 hour-long sessions. For exceptional cases not showing clinical improvement after six CBT treatment sessions, complementary pharmacological treatment (SSRI) was offered as part of our treatment protocol. CBT for OCD involves gradually exposing patients to anxiety provoking stimuli while having patients refrain from engaging in compulsive rituals and/or avoidance behaviors. There are three major components of CBT treatment for OCD, specifically: (1) exposure to anxiety provoking stimuli, (2) response prevention, and (3) cognitive techniques intended to decrease anxiety during the exposure and response prevention processes.
NY State Psychiatric Institute
New York, New York, United States
Brain Activation Associated With the Resolution of Cognitive Conflict
Task-based functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) will be acquired from children and adolescents diagnosed with OCD and healthy comparison subjects (HCs) during their performance of a Simon Spatial Compatibility Task. In each trial, participants are presented with a leftward or rightward pointing arrow that is either congruent or incongruent with their position (left or right) on the screen. Participants are instructed to respond as quickly and accurately as possible to the direction in which the arrow was pointing by pressing a button on a response box using the index finger for left and the middle finger for right. Brain activation during the resolution of cognitive conflict is computed by contrasting blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) signal during Incongruent versus Congruent trials. BOLD signal is expressed in arbitrary units (A.U.s).
Time frame: single time point: baseline
Functional Connectivity
Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) will be acquired from children and adolescents diagnosed with OCD and healthy comparison subjects (HCs) at baseline and after approximately 16-20 weeks (i.e., post-treatment for the participants with OCD). The whole brain is divided in 352 brain regions comprised of 333 cortical surface (Gordon et al. Cereb Cortex 2016;26:288-303) and 19 subcortical (Fischl et al. Neuron 2002;53:341-55) parcellated regions. FC-strength (average of Fisher-r-to-Z transformed Pearson correlation coefficients) between each region was computed. Values \>0 indicate regions are positively connected (synchronized), with larger values indicating stronger connection. Values \<0 indicate regions are negatively connected (inversely synchronized), with more negative values stronger negative connection. A value of 0 indicates that the regions are not connected.
Time frame: single time point: Baseline
Brain Gray Matter Thickness
Structural MRI will be acquired from children and adolescents diagnosed with OCD and healthy comparison subjects (HCs). Regional cortical thickness will be computed in the inferior frontal gyrus
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Time frame: Single time point: Baseline
Structural Connectivity (Streamline Counts)
Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) with Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI) will be acquired from children and adolescents diagnosed with OCD and healthy comparison subjects (HCs). A structural connectivity matrix is estimated for each participant using the standard MRtrix3 preprocessing pipeline, yielding 164x164 symmetrical streamline count matrix for each participant using the FreeSurfer segmentations/parcellations noted above (148 cortical, 14 subcortical regions, and the left and right cerebellum). Using this approach, streamline count between brain regions is proportional to the cross-sectional area of white matter fibers connecting those regions. Thus, streamline count is a biologically plausible metric of "structural connectivity" proposed to represent the communication 'bandwidth' between regions.
Time frame: Single time point (baseline)