Obsessive-compulsive disorder as a decision-making disorder: a translational assessment of aberrant error signaling and coordination of brain networks targeting causal interactions and clues to treatment (NU20-04-00147)
Basic information
Investigator: prof. MUDr. Jiří Horáček, Ph.D., FCMA
Main recipient: National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
Co-beneficiary: Institute of Physiology (IPHYS) of the Czech Academy of Sciences (CAS)
Research period: 1/5/2020 - 31/12/2023
Total budget: 13,941,000 CZK
NIMH budget: 8,092,000 CZK
Supported by: Czech Health Research Council (AZV ČR)
Annotation
Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a disabling psychiatric condition characterized by intrusive thoughts and repetitive actions. A substantial part of OCD patients is refractory to current treatment which poses a challenge to the understanding of pathophysiological mechanisms of OCD. This project aims to explore the causal interactions between OCD symptoms, brain structure and function. On the basis of features of OCD symptoms and brain imaging studies, the project postulates OCD as a decision making (DM) disorder resting on altered valuation and probability weighing functions, inflated loss and risk aversion, increased error signalling, and diminished resting state network activity. The substrate of altered DM will be explored in behavioural, electrophysiological and fMRI DM experiments in humans, combined with 2 animal models of OCD including DM tasks, direct electrical recording (tetrodes) and molecular imaging in rats. The project aims at a translational model of OCD allowing to identify novel therapeutic targets for navigated neurostimulation and other treatment modalities.