biological explanation for OCD: neural

    Cards (6)

    • Neural Explanations: role of serotonin
      • Genes can influence the regulation of certain neurotransmitters and structures of the brain
      • Serotonin is a neurotransmitter that regulates mood
      • If serotonin is not transported from one neuron to another, a person will have lowered moods which could lead to OCD
    • Neural explanations: Decision making systems
      • Some cases of OCD are associated with poor decision making
      • Having dysfunctional or impaired lateral frontal lobes can cause this
      • Frontal lobes are responsible for decision making and logical thinking/reasoning
      • Decreased decision making can lead to obsessive thoughts and compulsions
    • Neural explanations: The worry circuit
      • Involves three brain regions: the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), caudate nucleus, and thalamus
      • The OFC detects worry signals and sends them to the thalamus
      • The caudate nucleus normally suppresses the worry signals, but in OCD it is impaired so the signals are not suppressed and the thalamus becomes over-excited
      • This makes the thalamus send strong signals back to the OFC which leads the individual to perform compulsive behaviours and experience anxiety
    • research support
      Nestadt et al. found OCD symptoms in conditions like Parkinson's disease, supporting neural explanations and suggesting biological factors contribute to OCD.
    • no unique neural symptoms
      Co-morbidity between OCD and depression suggests serotonin's role in OCD symptoms may be indirect, through its impact on depression, rather than directly related to OCD.
    • correlation and causality
      The correlation between neural explanations like serotonin and OCD doesn't necessarily imply causation. lower levels of serotonin may not have cause OCD.