Arena Lorenzo, Peñate Wenceslao, Rivero Francisco, Marrero Rosario J, Olivares Teresa, Scarano Alessandro, Fumero Ascensión, Grecucci Alessandro
Department of Psychology and Cognitive Science, University of Trento, Trento, Italy.
Departamento de Psicología Clínica, Psicobiología y Metodología, Facultad de Psicología, Universidad de La Laguna, La Laguna, Spain.
Front Hum Neurosci. 2025 May 14;19:1559760. doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2025.1559760. eCollection 2025.
Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder (OCPD) is a complex mental condition marked by excessive perfectionism, orderliness, and rigidity, often starting in adolescence or early adulthood; it affects 1.9% to 7.8% of the population. The disorder differs from Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) in an apparent compromise of personality, distorted self-representation, and altered perception of others. Although the two disorders present evident differences, unlike OCD, the neural bases of OCPD are understudied. The few studies conducted so far have identified gray matter alterations in brain regions such as the striatum and prefrontal cortex. However, a comprehensive model of its neurobiology and the eventual contribution of white matter abnormalities are still unclear. One intriguing hypothesis is that regions ascribed to the Default Mode Network are involved in OCPD, similar to what has been shown for OCD and other anxiety disorders.
To test this hypothesis, the gray and white matter images of 30 individuals diagnosed with OCPD (73% female, mean age=29.300), and 34 non-OCPD controls (82% female, mean age = 25.599) were analyzed for the first time with a data fusion unsupervised machine learning method known as Parallel Independent Component Analysis (pICA) to detect the joint contribution of these modalities to the OCPD diagnosis.
Results indicated that two gray matter networks (GM-05 and GM-23) and one white matter network (WM-25) differed between the OCPD and the control group. GM-05 included brain regions belonging to the Default Mode Network and the Salience Network and was significantly correlated with anxiety; GM-23 included portions of the cerebellum, the precuneus, and the fusiform gyrus; WM-25 included white matter portions adjacent to Default Mode Network regions.
These findings shed new light on the gray and white matter contributions to OCPD and may pave the way to developing objective markers of this disorder.
强迫型人格障碍（OCPD）是一种复杂的精神状况，其特征为过度的完美主义、秩序感和僵化，通常始于青春期或成年早期；它影响着1.9%至7.8%的人口。该障碍与强迫症（OCD）的不同之处在于其明显的人格缺陷、扭曲的自我认知以及对他人看法的改变。尽管这两种障碍存在明显差异，但与强迫症不同的是，强迫型人格障碍的神经基础研究较少。迄今为止进行的少数研究已经确定了纹状体和前额叶皮层等脑区的灰质改变。然而，其神经生物学的综合模型以及白质异常的最终作用仍不清楚。一个有趣的假设是，与强迫症和其他焦虑症类似，默认模式网络所涉及的区域也与强迫型人格障碍有关。
为了验证这一假设，首次使用一种称为并行独立成分分析（pICA）的数据融合无监督机器学习方法，对30名被诊断为强迫型人格障碍的个体（73%为女性，平均年龄=29.300）和34名非强迫型人格障碍对照组（82%为女性，平均年龄=25.599）的灰质和白质图像进行分析，以检测这些模态对强迫型人格障碍诊断的联合贡献。
结果表明，强迫型人格障碍组和对照组之间存在两个灰质网络（GM - 05和GM - 23）和一个白质网络（WM - 25）的差异。GM - 05包括属于默认模式网络和突显网络的脑区，并且与焦虑显著相关；GM - 23包括小脑、楔前叶和梭状回的部分区域；WM - 25包括与默认模式网络区域相邻的白质部分。
这些发现为灰质和白质对强迫型人格障碍的作用提供了新的见解，并可能为开发该障碍的客观标志物铺平道路。
