The transverse temporal cortex surface area deficit was consistent across analyses in adult OCD. This region belongs to the primary auditory cortex and has not been implicated in OCD pathophysiology before. Lower cortical thickness and lower volume of this region have been associated with auditory hallucinations in schizophrenia (40). Prior approaches to detect structural alteration in this region may have been hampered by small samples or the modest sensitivity of conventional volumetric approaches. The advantage of high statistical power allows us to examine abnormalities throughout the brain without the need to pre-specify regions of interest and thus identify new regions putatively associated with the disorder. Further research is necessary understand the involvement of the transverse temporal cortex in OCD.
