Cognitive inflexibility is linked to abnormal frontoparietal‐related activation and connectivity in obsessive‐compulsive disorder

Abstract Although it was acknowledged that patients with obsessive‐compulsive disorder (OCD) would exhibit cognitive inflexibility, the underlying neural mechanism has not been fully clarified. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the neural substrates involved in cognitive inflexibility among individuals with OCD. A total of 42 patients with OCD and 48 healthy controls (HCs) completed clinical assessment and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data collection during cued task switching. Behavioral performances and fMRI activation were compared between the OCD group and the HC group. Psychophysiological interactions (PPIs) analyses were applied to explore functional connectivity related to task switching. Pearson correlation was used to investigate the relationships among behavioral performance, fMRI activity, and obsessive‐compulsive symptoms in OCD. The OCD group had a greater switch cost than HCs (χ 2 = 5.89, p < .05). A significant difference in reaction time was found during switch (χ 2 = 17.72, p < .001) and repeat (χ 2 = 16.60, p = .018) between the two groups, while there was no significant difference in group accuracy. Comparison of group differences showed that the OCD group had increased activation in the right superior parietal cortex ( r SPL) during task switching, and exhibited increased connectivity of frontoparietal network/default mode network (FPN–DMN; i.e., middle frontal gyrus [MFG]/inferior parietal cortex‐precuneus, MFG‐middle/posterior cingulate gyrus) and within the FPN (inferior parietal cortex‐postcentral gyrus). In the OCD group, the compulsion score was positively correlated with accuracy during switch ( r = .405, p = .008, FDR q <.05), and negatively correlated with activation of r SPL ( r = −.328, p = .034, FDR q >.05). Patients with OCD had impaired cognitive flexibility and cautious response strategy. The neural mechanism of cognitive inflexibility in OCD may involve increased activation in the r SPL, as well as hyperconnectivity within the FPN and between the FPN and DMN.