title: Atypical frontal-striatal-thalamic circuit white matter development in pediatric obsessive-compulsive disorder.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Atypical development of frontal-striatal-thalamic circuitry (FSTC) has been hypothesized to underlie the early course of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD); however, the development of FSTC white matter tracts remains to be studied in young patients.
  
  
  METHODS
  To address this gap, we scanned 36 patients with pediatric OCD compared to 27 healthy controls, aged 8 to 19 years, with diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) to measure fractional anisotropy (FA), an index of white matter coherence. Tract-based spatial statistics (TBSS) were used to test differential effects of age on FA, across the whole brain, in those with OCD compared to healthy youth, followed by analyses in a priori regions of interest (anterior corpus callosum, anterior cingulum bundle, and anterior limb of the internal capsule [ALIC]) to further characterize developmental differences between groups.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Patients with OCD showed more pronounced age-related increases in FA than controls in regions of interest, as well as several other white matter tracts. In patients, greater FA in anterior cingulum bundle correlated with more severe symptoms after controlling for age.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our findings support theories of atypical FSTC maturation in pediatric OCD by providing the first evidence for altered trajectories of white matter development in anterior corpus callosum, anterior cingulum bundle, and ALIC in young patients. Steeper age-related increases of FA in these and other select white matter tracts in OCD, compared to those in healthy controls, may derive from an early delay in white matter development and/or prolonged white matter growth; however, confirmation of these possibilities awaits longitudinal work.
authors.affiliation: University of Michigan Medical School. Electronic address: krd@umich.edu.
authors.forename: Kate D
authors.initials: KD
authors.lastname: Fitzgerald
authors.affiliation: University of Michigan Medical School.
authors.forename: Yanni
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: University of Michigan Medical School.
authors.forename: Elyse N
authors.initials: EN
authors.lastname: Reamer
authors.affiliation: University of Michigan Medical School.
authors.forename: Stephan F
authors.initials: SF
authors.lastname: Taylor
authors.affiliation: University of Michigan Medical School.
authors.forename: Robert C
authors.initials: RC
authors.lastname: Welsh
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000367:Age Factors; D016880:Anisotropy; D002648:Child; D003342:Corpus Striatum / Q000473:pathology* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D056324:Diffusion Tensor Imaging; D005260:Female; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000473:pathology* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009415:Nerve Net / Q000473:pathology* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D009771:Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology; D013788:Thalamus / Q000473:pathology* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D066127:White Matter / Q000473:pathology* / Q000503:physiopathology*
keywords: development; diffusion tensor imaging; fractional anisotropy; frontal–striatal–thalamic circuit; obsessive-compulsive disorder