The Obsessive compulsive disorder It is part of those psychological disorders whose understanding is increasingly enriched with data from neuroscience.
Even if the results of the numerous studies sometimes present partially coherent results, this phenomenon that falls within the normality of the research paths, the increasingly well defined models of the disorder begin to outline.
Over the years they have been found in subjects suffering from Obsessive compulsive disorder (DOC) Anomalies in the Orbitofrontalal Regions, in the lateral frontal cortex and anterior tracked, and still in the occipital and parietal one (Menzies et al., 2008); Functional brain imaging techniques (FMRI) through paradigms of provocation of symptoms would confirm the implication in the pathogenesis of the DOC of dysfunctions at the level of the orbit-refrigerated-high loop and of the limbic structures connected to it (anterior crawler and amygdala) (Mataix-Cols, 2004).
In the vein of Neuroanatomical research We point out the recent work of Stella J. De Wit et al, just published on the American Journal of Psychiatry (March 2014) entitled: “Multicenter Voxel-Based Morphometry Mega-Analysis of Structural Brain Scans in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder”.
The authors tried to evaluate the volumetric differences of the white and gray substance in some brain areas and relationships with clinical and demographic variables. To do this they compared the data from 412 adult subjects with DOC with those from 368 healthy control subjects.
The subjects affected by DOC have shown a significant bilateral reduction of the volumes of the white and gray substance at the front level, including the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, the anterior tracked cortex and the front front lap with involvement also of the front portion of the insurrected. While at the level of the cerebellar gray, bilaterally, patients showed an increase in volumes compared to healthy controls.
By comparing the data for age groups, very interesting data emerged: with increasing age, a relative conservation of the Volume of the Putamen, the Siula and the Orbuberfrontal cortex has been observed subjects affected by DOC Compared to healthy subjects while, bilaterally, at the level of the temporal cortex, a reduction in the volume in the patient group was observed with aging.
The results of this study, more significant than previous studies for the consistency of the sample examined, would tend to support the front-high models of the DOC providing greater awareness of the role played by the neuroanatomical modifications of the disorder.
The effects observed by the comparison of the age groups at the level of the orbito-refrigeon-historical and (para) cerebral regions and (para) limbic could be a consequence of an altered neuroplasticity associated with chronic compulsive pipes, anxiety or compensation processes connected to cognitive dysfunctions.
However, there is still nothing certain, and the data does not allow you to affirm that the DOC is a disorder in which there are Neuroanatomical implications that as causal factors, because the alterations found could always be functional, and therefore only biological correlated of a psychological disorder.
