In a groundbreaking study, researchers from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and SUNY Stony Brook University said they found that one chemical signaling system in the brain can effectively “take the wheel” of another.

The peer-reviewed findings offer a new perspective on the origins of chemical imbalances that underlie numerous debilitating neurological and psychiatric disorders such as Parkinson’s disease, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), anxiety, and depression.

The research team, led by Prof. Joshua Goldberg of Hebrew University and Stony Brook’s Prof. Joshua Plotkin, focused on the brain region central to learning and moving, the dorsal striatum, and the way the coordination between cells may go into overdrive.

“Compulsions, such as repetitive checking or washing, are thought to arise from abnormal activity in circuits of the dorsal striatum that control habitual behaviors,” said Goldberg, speaking to The Times of Israel.

Using AI and cutting-edge imaging techniques in pre-clinical trials on mice in the laboratory, the team explored the effect of a brain chemical called acetylcholine, which can directly trigger the release of serotonin, a neurotransmitter long linked to mood and psychiatric disorders.

The findings, recently published in Nature Communications, could help explain why certain behaviors become “so difficult to stop” in conditions such as OCD, the researchers said.

“Understanding these interactions may help us better understand the circuit dysfunction underlying these disorders and could eventually point toward new ways of treating them,” Goldberg said.

A psychiatric disease affecting people worldwide

Speaking to The Times of Israel, Plotkin said that OCD is one of the most common psychiatric disorders in the world, affecting up to three percent of the global population.

“The disorder doesn’t really discriminate between nationality, race, or gender,” Plotkin said.

In Israel, a study found direct evidence that acute trauma can also trigger or worsen OCD symptoms.

Four to six months after witnessing the bloody October 7, 2023, Hamas assault, nearly 40 percent of survivors exposed to the violence met the criteria for probable OCD, compared to just seven percent of a matched control group elsewhere in........

© The Times of Israel