Widespread white matter (WM) abnormalities may offer new insight into hoarding disorder (HD).
In a neuroimaging study, investigators led by Taro Mizobe, Department of Neuropsychiatry, Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan, compared brain scans of individuals with and without HD.
Results showed that compared with healthy family members, participants with HD had anatomically widespread abnormalities in WM tracts.
In particular, a broad range of alterations were found in frontal WM related to HD symptom severity, as well as cortical regions involved in cognitive dysfunction.
"The finding of a characteristic association between alterations in the prefrontal WM tract, which connects cortical regions involved in cognitive function and the severity of hoarding symptoms, could provide new insights into the neurobiological basis of HD," the researchers write.
The findings were published online January 18 in the Journal of Psychiatric Research.
Limited Information
"Although there are no clear neurobiological models of HD, several neuroimaging studies have found specific differences in specific brain regions" between patients with and without HD, the investigators write.
Structural MRI studies and voxel-based morphometry have shown larger volumes of gray matter in several regions of the brain in patients with HD. However, there have been no reports on alterations in the WM tracts — and studies of patients with OCD and hoarding symptoms have yielded only "limited information" regarding WM tracts, the researchers note.
