Scientists Investigate Root Cause of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder -- Why The Brain Command Centre Is Changeable

Helen Holmes February 19, 2013

The ability to learn, adapt and establish new habits and memories depends entirely on the strength of the synaptic transmission – the exchange of information between neurons in the brain. But over time, these synapses change, affecting a person’s ability to control their behaviour, a new study suggests.

Nicole Calakos, a neurologist and neuroscientist at Duke University studied the mechanisms underlying ‘synaptic plasticity’ and the role it plays in the development of some neurological disorders, such as obsessive compulsive behaviour.

Part of her research was focused on the basal ganglia, or the brain’s command centre. According to Calakos, this specific area is a target of neuroscientists in understanding the root cause of obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), Parkinson’s disease and other autism spectrum disorders. In her study, Calakos investigated whether any defects in the basal ganglia could trigger the onset of OCD.

To find this out, she conducted an experiment on mice that showed obsessive compulsive behaviour which was developed by her former colleague Guoping Feng, who now works at the McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT. These mice tend to endlessly groom themselves until their faces were rubbed raw. When Calakos looked at the subjects’ brains, she discovered that they have overactive metabotropic glutamate receptors (mGluRs) which make it hard for their synapses to change.

Calakos theorises that the hyperactivity of such receptors is the cause of autism spectrum disorders. Currently, she and her team are experimenting on whether the use of drugs to inhibit mGluRs can be used to improve the mice’ behaviour. Hopefully, their findings would pave way to the development of new therapies that can effectively alleviate, if not eliminate OCD symptoms and other behavioural disorders in humans.

Source of this article:

Molecular Mechanisms of Synaptic Plasticity