title: [Neuroimaging and the neurobiology of obsessive-compulsive disorder].
abstract: The following review is focusing on results of functional neuroimaging. After some introductory remarks on the phenomenology, epidemiology, and psychotherapy approaches of obsessive-compulsive disorders (OCD) the most important OCD-related brain regions are presented. Obviously, not only the prominent cortico-striato-thalamo-cortical feedback loops are involved, as functional brain imaging studies tell us, but also other regions as the inferior parietal lobe, the anterior and posterior cingulate gyrus, insula, amygdala, cerebellum, and others. Subclassifications using factor-analysis methods support the hypothesis, that most important subtypes ("washing/contamination fear", "obsessions/checking", "symmetry/ordering", "hoarding") involve different, but partially overlapping brain areas. Stimulation paradigms in fMRI-research are commonly based on symptom provocation by visual or tactile stimuli, or on action-monitoring and error-monitoring tasks. Deficits in action-monitoring and planning are discussed to be one of the basic dysfunctions of OCD. Finally, results of psychotherapeutic induced variations of brain activations in OCD are presented.
authors.affiliation: Forschungseinrichtung für Dynamische Systeme, Institut für Psychologie, Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt. guenter.schiepek@ccsys.de
authors.forename: Günter
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Schiepek
authors.forename: Igor
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Tominschek
authors.forename: Susanne
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Karch
authors.forename: Christoph
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Mulert
authors.forename: Oliver
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Pogarell
mesh_terms: D001921:Brain / Q000473:pathology*; D003952:Diagnostic Imaging; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D009771:Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder / Q000473:pathology* / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy