Effects of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) on response inhibition and neuronal activity in obsessive-compulsive disorder

经颅直流电刺激（tDCS）对强迫症反应抑制和神经元活动的影响

• 批准号: 446341214
• 负责人: Professorin Dr. Kathrin Koch
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Abteilung für Diagnostische und Interventionelle Neuroradiologie
• 依托单位国家: 德国
• 项目类别: Research Grants
• 资助国家: 德国
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/446341214?language=en
• 关键词: Effects; transcranial; direct; current; stimulation

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a psychiatric disease characterized by obsessions and compulsions. Obsessions are described as recurrent and persistent thoughts or impulses which are perceived by the patients as unwanted, intrusive and hard to inhibit. Compulsions are defined as repetitive behaviours or mental thoughts which patients are unable to inhibit. Hence, a deficit in inhibition is considered as a core psychopathological mechanisms of OCD. Inhibition deficits in OCD have been shown to go along with decreased activation in mainly lateral and medial frontal regions, striatum, and thalamus and might be associated with hypoconnectivities in specific resting-state networks (i.e., frontoparietal network, salience network). There is mounting evidence indicating that transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) improves inhibition performance in healthy subjects but no comparable studies have been performed in patients with OCD up to now. Against this background the planned project aims at investigating the effects of anodal tDCS on clinical symptoms, behavioral inhibition and its neural correlates in a group of patients suffering from OCD (n=44). We expect preSMA tDCS stimulation to go along with an improvement in compulsory impulses and behavioral inhibition. This improved inhibition capability is moreover expected to go along with increased activation in mainly frontal regions, an increase in functional connectivity of the stimulated region as well as an increase in resting-state functional connectivity in psychopathologically relevant networks (i.e., frontoparietal network, salience network). A tDCS-related improvement in behavioral inhibition and clinical state would underline the clinical relevance of inhibitory capacities and demonstrate the therapeutic efficacy of tDCS for OCD. Moreover, enhanced activation and connectivity as a result of tDCS would reveal the neurobiological mechanisms underlying the associated improvements in behavioral inhibition and demonstrate the psychopathological relevance of their alterations.

强迫症（OCD）是一种以强迫和强迫为特征的精神疾病。强迫症被描述为反复出现和持续的想法或冲动，这些想法或冲动被患者认为是不想要的，侵入性的和难以抑制的。目标是指病人无法抑制的重复行为或思想。因此，抑制缺陷被认为是强迫症的核心精神病理学机制。强迫症中的抑制缺陷已被证明沿着主要在外侧和内侧额叶区域、纹状体和丘脑中的激活减少，并且可能与特定静息状态网络中的低连通性有关（即，额顶叶网络，突显网络）。有越来越多的证据表明，经颅直流电刺激（tDCS）可以改善健康受试者的抑制性能，但到目前为止，还没有在强迫症患者中进行类似的研究。在此背景下，计划的项目旨在研究阳极tDCS对一组患有强迫症的患者（n=44）的临床症状，行为抑制及其神经相关性的影响。我们预计preSMA tDCS刺激将沿着强制性冲动和行为抑制的改善。此外，预期这种改善的抑制能力沿着主要是额叶区域的激活增加、受刺激区域的功能连接性增加以及精神病理学相关网络（即，额顶叶网络，突显网络）。行为抑制和临床状态的tDCS相关改善将强调抑制能力的临床相关性，并证明tDCS对OCD的治疗功效。此外，增强激活和连接作为tDCS的结果将揭示相关的行为抑制改善的神经生物学机制，并证明其改变的精神病理学相关性。