Abnormal topological organization in white matter structural networks revealed by diffusion tensor tractography in unmedicated patients with obsessive–compulsive disorder

•Little is known about the topological organization of the white matter networks in OCD patients.•This study mapped the white matter structural networks and investigated properties in 26 patients and 39 controls.•Patients showed significantly decreased global efficiencies and nodal efficiency in some brain areas.•The abnormalities of the network metrics were significantly correlated with the Y-BOCS scores.•A topology-based brain network analysis can study the structural connectivities in an OCD brain.

BackgroundObsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD) is a chronic psychiatric disorder defined by recurrent thoughts, intrusive and distressing impulses, or images and ritualistic behaviors. Although focal diverse regional abnormalities white matter integrity in specific brain regions have been widely studied in populations with OCD, alterations in the structural connectivities among them remain poorly understood.ObjectiveThe aim was to investigate the abnormalities in the topological efficiency of the white matter networks and the correlation between the network metrics and Yale–Brown Obsessive–Compulsive Scale scores in unmedicated OCD patients, using diffusion tensor tractography and graph theoretical approaches.MethodsThis study used diffusion tensor imaging and deterministic tractography to map the white matter structural networks in 26 OCD patients and 39 age- and gender-matched healthy controls; and then applied graph theoretical methods to investigate abnormalities in the global and regional properties of the white matter network in these patients.ResultsThe patients and control participants both showed small-world organization of the white matter networks. However, the OCD patients exhibited significant abnormal global topology, including decreases in global efficiency (t = − 2.32, p = 0.02) and increases in shortest path length, Lp (t = 2.30, p = 0.02), the normalized weighted shortest path length, λ (t = 2.08, p = 0.04), and the normalized clustering coefficient, γ (t = 2.26, p = 0.03), of their white matter structural networks compared with healthy controls. Further, the OCD patients showed a reduction in nodal efficiency predominately in the frontal regions, the parietal regions and caudate nucleus. The normalized weighted shortest path length of the network metrics was significantly negatively correlated with obsessive subscale of the Yale–Brown Obsessive–Compulsive Scale (r = − 0.57, p = 0.0058).ConclusionsThese findings demonstrate the abnormal topological efficiency in the white matter networks in OCD patients.