Event‐related EEG synchronization and desynchronization in patients with obsessive–compulsive disorder

Abstract Symptoms in patients with obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD) are associated with impairment in cognitive control, attention, and action inhibition. We investigated OCD group differences relative to healthy subjects in terms of event‐related alpha and beta range synchronization (ERS) and desynchronization (ERD) during a visually cued Go/NoGo task. Subjects were 62 OCD patients and 296 healthy controls (HC). The OCD group in comparison with HC, showed a changed value of alpha/beta oscillatory power over the central cortex, in particular, an increase in the alpha/beta ERD over the central‐parietal cortex during the interstimulus interval (Cue condition) as well as changes in the postmovement beta synchronization topography and frequency. Over the frontal cortex, the OCD group showed an increase in magnitude of the beta ERS in NoGo condition. Within the parietal‐occipital ERS/ERD modulations, the OCD group showed an increase in the alpha/beta ERD over the parietal cortex after the presentation of the visual stimuli as well as a decrease in the beta ERD over the occipital cortex after the presentation of the Cue and Go stimuli. The specific properties in the ERS/ERD patterns observed in the OCD group may reflect high involvement of the frontal and central cortex in action preparation and action inhibition processes and, possibly, in maintaining the motor program, which might be a result of the dysfunction of the cortico‐striato‐thalamo‐cortical circuits involving prefrontal cortex. The data about enhanced involvement of the parietal cortex in the evaluation of the visual stimuli are in line with the assumption about overfocused attention in OCD.