Dataset Information

An fMRI Pilot Study of Cognitive Flexibility in Trichotillomania.

ABSTRACT: Trichotillomania is a relatively common psychiatric condition, although its neurobiological basis is unknown. Abnormalities of flexible responding have been implicated in the pathophysiology of obsessive-compulsive disorder and thus may be relevant in trichotillomania. The purpose of this study was to probe reversal learning and attentional set-shifting in trichotillomania. Twelve adults with trichotillomania and 13 matched healthy control subjects undertook a functional MRI task of cognitive flexibility. Group-level activation maps for extradimensional and reversal switches were independently parcellated into discrete regions of interest using a custom watershed algorithm. Activation magnitudes were extracted from each region of interest and study subject and compared at the group level. Reversal events evoked the expected patterns of insula and parietal regions and activity in the frontal dorsal cortex extending anterior to the frontal poles, whereas extradimensional shifts evoked the expected frontal dorsolateral and parietal pattern of activity. Trichotillomania was associated with significantly increased right middle frontal and reduced right occipital cortex activation during reversal and set-shifting. Elevated frontal activation coupled with reduced activation in more posterior brain regions was identified. These pilot data suggest potentially important neural dysfunction associated with trichotillomania.

SUBMITTER: Grant JE

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6276993 | biostudies-literature | 2018

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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An fMRI Pilot Study of Cognitive Flexibility in Trichotillomania.

Grant Jon E JE Daws Richard R Hampshire Adam A Chamberlain Samuel R SR

The Journal of neuropsychiatry and clinical neurosciences 20180824 4

Trichotillomania is a relatively common psychiatric condition, although its neurobiological basis is unknown. Abnormalities of flexible responding have been implicated in the pathophysiology of obsessive-compulsive disorder and thus may be relevant in trichotillomania. The purpose of this study was to probe reversal learning and attentional set-shifting in trichotillomania. Twelve adults with trichotillomania and 13 matched healthy control subjects undertook a functional MRI task of cognitive fl ...[more]

PMID: 30141727

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Project description:ObjectivesPeople with Anorexia Nervosa exhibit difficulties flexibly adjusting behaviour in response to environmental changes. This has previously been attributed to problematic behavioural shifting, characterised by a decrease in fronto-striatal activity. Additionally, alterations of instrumental learning, which relies on fronto-striatal networks, may contribute to the observation of inflexible behaviour. The authors sought to investigate the neural correlates of cognitive flexibility and learning in Anorexia Nervosa.MethodThirty-two adult females with Anorexia Nervosa and thirty-two age-matched female control participants completed the Wisconsin Card Sorting Task whilst undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging. Event-related analysis permitted the comparison of cognitive shift trials against those requiring maintenance of rule-sets and allowed assessment of trials representing learning.ResultsAlthough both groups performed similarly, we found significant interactions in the left middle frontal gyrus, precuneus and superior parietal lobule whereby blood-oxygenated-level dependent response was higher in Anorexia Nervosa patients during shifting but lower when maintaining rule-sets, as compared to healthy controls. During learning, posterior cingulate cortex activity in healthy controls decreased whilst increasing in the Anorexia Nervosa group, whereas the right precuneus exhibited the opposite pattern. Furthermore, learning was associated with lower blood-oxygenated-level dependent response in the caudate body, as compared to healthy controls.ConclusionsPeople with Anorexia Nervosa display widespread changes in executive function. Whilst cognitive flexibility appears to be associated with aberrant functioning of the fronto-parietal control network that mediates between internally and externally directed cognition, fronto-striatal alterations, particularly within the caudate body, were associated with instrumental learning. Together, this shows how perseverative tendencies could be a substrate of multiple high-order processes that may contribute to the maintenance of Anorexia Nervosa.

Project description:While future imagination is largely considered to be a cognitive process grounded in default mode network activity, studies have shown that future imagination recruits regions in both default mode and frontoparietal control networks. In addition, it has recently been shown that the ability to imagine the future is associated with cognitive flexibility, and that tasks requiring cognitive flexibility result in increased coupling of the default mode network with frontoparietal control and salience networks. In the current study, we investigated the neural correlates underlying the association between cognitive flexibility and future imagination in two ways. First, we experimentally varied the degree of cognitive flexibility required during future imagination by manipulating the disparateness of episodic details contributing to imagined events. To this end, participants generated episodic details (persons, locations, objects) within three social spheres; during fMRI scanning they were presented with sets of three episodic details all taken from the same social sphere (Congruent condition) or different social spheres (Incongruent condition) and required to imagine a future event involving the three details. We predicted that, relative to the Congruent condition, future simulation in the Incongruent condition would be associated with increased activity in regions of the default mode, frontoparietal and salience networks. Second, we hypothesized that individual differences in cognitive flexibility, as measured by performance on the Alternate Uses Task, would correspond to individual differences in the brain regions recruited during future imagination. A task partial least squares (PLS) analysis showed that the Incongruent condition resulted in an increase in activity in regions in salience networks (e.g. the insula) but, contrary to our prediction, reduced activity in many regions of the default mode network (including the hippocampus). A subsequent functional connectivity (within-subject seed PLS) analysis showed that the insula exhibited increased coupling with default mode regions during the Incongruent condition. Finally, a behavioral PLS analysis showed that individual differences in cognitive flexibility were associated with differences in activity in a number of regions from frontoparietal, salience and default-mode networks during both future imagination conditions, further highlighting that the cognitive flexibility underlying future imagination is grounded in the complex interaction of regions in these networks.

Dataset Information

An fMRI Pilot Study of Cognitive Flexibility in Trichotillomania.

Publications

An fMRI Pilot Study of Cognitive Flexibility in Trichotillomania.

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