Poster No:
1244
Submission Type:
Abstract Submission
Authors:
Hannah Strenger1, Katharina Bey1, Alexandra Philipsen1, Aylin Mehren1,2
Institutions:
1Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany, 2Department of Cognitive Neuroscience, Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre, Nijmegen, Netherlands
First Author:
Hannah Strenger
Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of Bonn
Bonn, Germany
Co-Author(s):
Katharina Bey
Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of Bonn
Bonn, Germany
Alexandra Philipsen
Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of Bonn
Bonn, Germany
Aylin Mehren
Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of Bonn|Department of Cognitive Neuroscience, Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre
Bonn, Germany|Nijmegen, Netherlands
Introduction:
Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a debilitating psychiatric condition with a lifetime prevalence of 1–3% worldwide (Torres et al., 2006). It is characterized by intrusive thoughts (obsessions) and/or repetitive behaviours (compulsions) performed to alleviate obsession-induced anxiety and other aversive emotions. Functional connectivity (FC) studies using resting-state fMRI have consistently identified aberrant cortico-striato-thalamo-cortical (CSTC) functioning (Gürsel et al., 2018). However, the triple network model of OCD pathophysiology has gained more support as hypoconnectivity has been reported both within and between the default mode network (DMN), frontoparietal network (FPN), and salience network (SN) (Gürsel et al., 2018). Furthermore, recent studies have highlighted dysconnectivity within the sensorimotor network (SMN) (Bruin et al., 2023). Although effective treatments exist, many individuals with OCD experience persistent residual symptoms, making new additional treatment important. Exercise has emerged as a promising intervention in various psychiatric disorders (Ströhle, 2019). Neuroimaging studies in healthy adults indicate that exercise alters resting-state FC, particularly in regions implicated in OCD (McGregor et al., 2018; Weng et al., 2017). To date, no study has specifically investigated the effects of exercise on functional connectivity in individuals with OCD. In this pilot study, we explored the effects of a single bout of aerobic exercise on resting-state FC in individuals with OCD.
Methods:
Twenty individuals with OCD (mage = 37.15, SDage = 11.68, nfemale = 13, nmedicated = 14) completed a 30-minute session of moderate aerobic exercise (65-75% of HFmax) on a cycling ergometer and a 26-minute documentary in a pseudo-randomized order. Resting-state fMRI data were acquired before and after each intervention using a Siemens Magnetom TrioTim syngo 3T scanner (8 minutes acquisition). Standard preprocessing was performed using SPM12 and the CONN toolbox (Whitfield-Gabrieli & Nieto-Castanon, 2012), including slice-time correction, realignment with static distortion correction, coregistration, outlier detection, segmentation, MNI-space normalization, and smoothing (8mm FWHM Gaussian kernel). Functional data were denoised using a standard denoising pipeline, including bandpass filtering (0.008 – 0.09 Hz) and nuisance regression. Seed-to-voxel analyses were conducted using a priori defined seeds within the DMN, SN, FPN, SMN, and thalamus. Second-level analyses were conducted using repeated-measures ANOVAs with condition (exercise, film) and time (pre, post) as within-subjects factors. Interaction effects were tested to identify connectivity changes specific to exercise. Statistical significance was determined at the cluster level with FDR correction for cluster size (p-FDR<.05).
Results:
In comparison to watching the film, exercise induced changes in resting-state FC in several brain networks, mainly in terms of a reduction in connectivity. Within the SN, connectivity decreased between both the right and left rostral prefrontal cortex (rPFC) and right insular cortex (right rPFC: p-FDR=.037, left rPFC: p-FDR=.001). Within the FPN, hypoconnectivity was observed between the left posterior parietal cortex (PPC) and the left middle frontal gyrus (p-FDR=.047). Reduced connectivity was also observed between the right thalamus and the right cerebellum (p-FDR=.029), as well as the left cerebellum (p-FDR=.024) after exercise. Hyperconnectivity was observed between left PPC and the posterior cingulate cortex (p-FDR=.035), indicating dysconnectivity between FPN and DMN. No changes in FC after exercise were observed in FC in SMN.
Conclusions:
Our results provide initial evidence that acute moderate exercise affects FC in networks associated with OCD pathophysiology. However, further research is needed to determine whether these changes in neural activity are associated to symptom improvement.
Disorders of the Nervous System:
Psychiatric (eg. Depression, Anxiety, Schizophrenia) 2
Modeling and Analysis Methods:
Connectivity (eg. functional, effective, structural) 1
Keywords:
Experimental Design
FUNCTIONAL MRI
Obessive Compulsive Disorder
Other - Aerobic exercise; connectivity
1|2Indicates the priority used for review
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Please indicate below if your study was a "resting state" or "task-activation” study.
Resting state
Healthy subjects only or patients (note that patient studies may also involve healthy subjects):
Patients
Was this research conducted in the United States?
No
Were any human subjects research approved by the relevant Institutional Review Board or ethics panel?
NOTE: Any human subjects studies without IRB approval will be automatically rejected.
Yes
Were any animal research approved by the relevant IACUC or other animal research panel?
NOTE: Any animal studies without IACUC approval will be automatically rejected.
Not applicable
Please indicate which methods were used in your research:
Functional MRI
Structural MRI
For human MRI, what field strength scanner do you use?
3.0T
Which processing packages did you use for your study?
SPM
Other, Please list
-
CONN
Provide references using APA citation style.
Bruin, W. B., Abe, Y., Alonso, P., Anticevic, A., Backhausen, L. L., Balachander, S., Bargallo, N., Batistuzzo, M. C., Benedetti, F., Bertolin Triquell, S., Brem, S., Calesella, F., Couto, B., Denys, D. A. J. P., Echevarria, M. A. N., Eng, G. K., Ferreira, S., Feusner, J. D., Grazioplene, R. G., . . . van Wingen, G. A. (2023). The functional connectome in obsessive-compulsive disorder: resting-state mega-analysis and machine learning classification for the ENIGMA-OCD consortium. Molecular psychiatry, 28(10), 4307–4319. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41380-023-02077-0
Gürsel, D. A., Avram, M., Sorg, C., Brandl, F. & Koch, K. (2018). Frontoparietal areas link impairments of large-scale intrinsic brain networks with aberrant fronto-striatal interactions in OCD: a meta-analysis of resting-state functional connectivity. Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews, 87, 151–160. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2018.01.016
McGregor, K. M., Crosson, B., Krishnamurthy, L. C., Krishnamurthy, V., Hortman, K., Gopinath, K., Mammino, K. M., Omar, J. & Nocera, J. R. (2018). Effects of a 12-Week Aerobic Spin Intervention on Resting State Networks in Previously Sedentary Older Adults. Frontiers in psychology, 9, 2376. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02376
Ströhle, A. (2019). Sports psychiatry: mental health and mental disorders in athletes and exercise treatment of mental disorders. European archives of psychiatry and clinical neuroscience, 269(5), 485–498. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00406-018-0891-5
Torres, A. R., Prince, M. J., Bebbington, P. E., Bhugra, D., Brugha, T. S., Farrell, M., Jenkins, R., Lewis, G., Meltzer, H. & Singleton, N. (2006). Obsessive-compulsive disorder: prevalence, comorbidity, impact, and help-seeking in the British National Psychiatric Morbidity Survey of 2000. The American journal of psychiatry, 163(11), 1978–1985. https://doi.org/10.1176/ajp.2006.163.11.1978
Weng, T. B., Pierce, G. L., Darling, W. G., Falk, D., Magnotta, V. A. & Voss, M. W. (2017). The Acute Effects of Aerobic Exercise on the Functional Connectivity of Human Brain Networks. Brain plasticity (Amsterdam, Netherlands), 2(2), 171–190. https://doi.org/10.3233/BPL-160039
Whitfield-Gabrieli, S. & Nieto-Castanon, A. (2012). Conn: a functional connectivity toolbox for correlated and anticorrelated brain networks. Brain connectivity, 2(3), 125–141. https://doi.org/10.1089/brain.2012.0073
No