TY - JOUR
T1 - Emotional processing and disgust sensitivity in OCD patients with and without contamination-type obsessive-compulsive symptoms – An fMRI study.
AU - Rickelt, Judith
AU - de Wit, Stella J.
AU - van der Werf, Ysbrand D.
AU - Schruers, Koen R.J.
AU - Marcelis, Machteld
AU - de Vries, Froukje E.
AU - van den Heuvel, Odile A.
PY - 2019/7/1
Y1 - 2019/7/1
N2 - Objective: Disgust is described as a relevant emotion in OCD, particularly in contamination-type OCD, and may be involved in emotional processing in this OCD-subtype. The present study aimed to investigate the neural correlates of distress processing in contamination-type compared to non-contamination-type OCD, and the relation to disgust sensitivity. Methods: Forty-three OCD patients (n = 19 contamination-type OCD) were exposed to OCD-related, fear-related and neutral pictures. Subjective distress per stimulus was assessed by a visual analogue scale (VAS) and disgust sensitivity by the DS-R. BOLD brain activation was compared between stimuli that provoked high versus low distress at individual level. Results: In contamination- and non-contamination-type OCD, the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, operculum, visual association cortex and caudate nucleus were activated during high versus low distress. Only in contamination-type OCD, disgust sensitivity correlated positively with the VAS scores and was associated with neural activation in the dorsomedial and visual association cortex, but not with the operculum. Conclusions: Brain activation during distress processing in OCD is similar across the OCD subtypes and related to effortful emotion regulation, processing of aversive internal states and attention. In contamination-type OCD, the distress response is related to disgust sensitivity, which correlates with brain regions associated with attention and emotion regulation.
AB - Objective: Disgust is described as a relevant emotion in OCD, particularly in contamination-type OCD, and may be involved in emotional processing in this OCD-subtype. The present study aimed to investigate the neural correlates of distress processing in contamination-type compared to non-contamination-type OCD, and the relation to disgust sensitivity. Methods: Forty-three OCD patients (n = 19 contamination-type OCD) were exposed to OCD-related, fear-related and neutral pictures. Subjective distress per stimulus was assessed by a visual analogue scale (VAS) and disgust sensitivity by the DS-R. BOLD brain activation was compared between stimuli that provoked high versus low distress at individual level. Results: In contamination- and non-contamination-type OCD, the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, operculum, visual association cortex and caudate nucleus were activated during high versus low distress. Only in contamination-type OCD, disgust sensitivity correlated positively with the VAS scores and was associated with neural activation in the dorsomedial and visual association cortex, but not with the operculum. Conclusions: Brain activation during distress processing in OCD is similar across the OCD subtypes and related to effortful emotion regulation, processing of aversive internal states and attention. In contamination-type OCD, the distress response is related to disgust sensitivity, which correlates with brain regions associated with attention and emotion regulation.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85065658504&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jocrd.2019.100443
DO - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jocrd.2019.100443
M3 - Article
SN - 2211-3649
VL - 22
JO - Journal of obsessive-compulsive and related disorders
JF - Journal of obsessive-compulsive and related disorders
M1 - 100443
ER -