The study, carried out in Theresa Desrochers’ laboratory at Brown University, tested brain activity in people with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) during a cognitively demanding sequence task. Participants performed the task inside an MRI scanner while naming the color or the shape of images in a particular order; the example sequence was color, color, shape, shape. Lead author Hannah Doyle is a postdoctoral researcher in Desrochers’ lab.
Behaviorally, people with OCD completed the sequence as well as a control group, but their brain scans showed differences. The brains of participants with OCD recruited more regions than those of control participants.
Extra activity occurred in areas linked to motor and cognitive task control, working memory, and object recognition. Some regions had not been previously associated with OCD, such as the middle temporal gyrus and a region spanning the occipital gyrus and the temporo-occipital junction.
Nicole McLaughlin, an associate professor and neuropsychologist, suggests these findings could point to new treatment targets. Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) may be repositioned to stimulate the newly implicated regions and potentially improve outcomes; TMS was approved for OCD in 2018 and leads to improvement in about 30–40% of patients. Researchers are now testing whether the sequence task can track brain changes between treatments.
Difficult words
- transcranial magnetic stimulation — a treatment using magnetic pulses on the brain
- recruit — to bring into use for a taskrecruited
- working memory — short-term memory used for current tasks
- object recognition — ability to identify shapes and items
- middle temporal gyrus — a brain area involved in visual processing
- temporo-occipital junction — the connection area between temporal and occipital lobes
- neuropsychologist — a scientist who studies brain and behaviour
Tip: hover, focus or tap highlighted words in the article to see quick definitions while you read or listen.
Discussion questions
- How could identifying new brain regions help improve treatments for OCD?
- Would testing brain changes with a sequence task be useful during different treatments? Why or why not?
- What practical challenges might researchers face when using MRI scans for treatment research?
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