Lee Sang Won, Cha Hyunsil, Jang Tae Yang, Kim Eunji, Song Huijin, Chang Yongmin, Lee Seung Jae
Department of Psychiatry, Kyungpook National University Chilgok Hospital, Daegu, Korea.
Departments of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, Kyungpook National University, Daegu, Korea.
Clin Psychopharmacol Neurosci. 2021 Nov 30;19(4):628-639. doi: 10.9758/cpn.2021.19.4.628.
Thought-action fusion (TAF), one of the most-studied dysfunctional beliefs in obsessive-compulsive disorder, represents an individual's belief that his/her thoughts directly influence events. TAF belief types are divided into personal thoughts relating to positive (positive TAF) and negative outcomes (negative TAF). However, the neural mechanisms underlying both aspects of the TAF response remain elusive.
This functional magnetic resonance imaging study aimed to investigate the neural circuits related to positive and negative TAF and their relationships with psychological measures. Thirty-one healthy male volunteers participated in a modified TAF task wherein they were asked to read the name of a close person embedded in positive statements (PS) or negative statements (NS).
Conjunction analysis revealed activation of the fusiform and lingual gyri, midcingulate and superior medial frontal gyri, inferior orbitofrontal gyrus, and temporoparietal junction. The NS > PS comparison showed additional activation in the precuneus and medial prefrontal cortex, superior frontal gyrus, insula, globus pallidus, thalamus, and midbrain. Precuneus activity was associated with the TAF score among these areas. Moreover, activity in the inferior orbitofrontal gyrus, insula, superior, middle and medial frontal gyri, globus pallidus, inferior parietal lobule, and precuneus was associated with dimensional obsessive-compulsive scores. In contrast, the PS > NS comparison revealed no significant activation.
These results suggest that negative TAF, relative to positive TAF, recruits additional regions for self-referential processing, salience, and habitual responding, which may contribute to the activation of the belief that a negative thought increases the probability of that negative outcome.
思维-行动融合（TAF）是强迫症中研究最多的功能失调信念之一，它代表个体认为自己的思维能直接影响事件。TAF信念类型分为与积极（积极TAF）和消极结果（消极TAF）相关的个人思维。然而，TAF反应这两个方面背后的神经机制仍不清楚。
这项功能磁共振成像研究旨在调查与积极和消极TAF相关的神经回路及其与心理测量指标的关系。31名健康男性志愿者参与了一项改良的TAF任务，他们被要求阅读嵌入在积极陈述（PS）或消极陈述（NS）中的亲密之人的名字。
联合分析显示梭状回和舌回、扣带中部和额内侧上回、眶额下回以及颞顶联合区激活。NS>PS比较显示楔前叶和内侧前额叶皮质、额上回、岛叶、苍白球、丘脑和中脑有额外激活。在这些区域中，楔前叶活动与TAF评分相关。此外，眶额下回、岛叶、额上回、额中回、额内侧回、苍白球、顶下小叶和楔前叶的活动与维度强迫症评分相关。相比之下，PS>NS比较未显示显著激活。
这些结果表明，相对于积极TAF，消极TAF会募集更多区域用于自我参照加工、显著性和习惯性反应，这可能有助于激活消极思维会增加消极结果发生概率的信念。
