A report in the August 2024 addition of the Journal of the American Medical Association, delivered breaking news regarding compulsive hoarding. A team of researchers confirmed which brain regions can cause the condition. If neural mechanisms affect hoarding, then this could do away with the perception that it is ‘elective behaviour’.
How Neural Mechanisms Affect Hoarding Life Styles
The United Kingdom National Health Service explains the broader conclusions of the far-reaching study. Certain areas in hoarders’ brains are relatively less active when dealing with other people’s possessions, they say. But those same regions become highly active when deciding whether to keep or discard personal items.
If there is further, corroborating evidence to confirm that neural mechanisms affect hoarding behaviour, then this would be valuable input to managing the condition in future. Currently, authorities like Cleveland Clinic explain hoarding as a strong need to save one’s possessions. But now this new discovery may explain what triggers the need.
Is Hoarding a Form of OCD Behaviour?
People who hoard generally have difficultly deciding when it is time to throw things away. And largely as a result of this, they accumulate piles of clutter that may affect their health and safety. There are two bodies of opinion when it comes to diagnosis. Some professionals classify the symptom as obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), while others believe it is something quite unique.
Studies of Neural Mechanisms And Hoarding
The United Kingdom National Health Service was quick to point out that earlier studies have also investigated brain functioning in this regard. These findings link the phenomenon to decision-making, attachment, reward processing, impulse control and emotional regulation.
However, those earlier studies used different patient populations and research methods. And as a result they are tricky to correlate, or rely on to reach definitive conclusions. This leaves the question of whether neural mechanisms affect hoarding wide open.
The New Study Used a More Advanced Technique
The researchers from Hartford Hospital in Connecticut, and Yale University had functional magnetic resonance imaging equipment at their disposal. This technique allowed them to measure small changes in blood flow caused by brain activity. When a specific area of the brain is active, the blood flow increases, and vice versa.
The team investigating whether neural mechanisms affect hoarding, examined 43 functional magnetic resonance images of hoarders. Then they compared these to those of 31 people with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), and 33 healthy control subjects. Their broad methodology was as follows:
- First, they gave study participants six seconds to decide whether to discard junk mail or not.
- Then they watched as the researchers shredded the items they previously chose to discard.
- Finally, the subjects rated their emotions and feelings while deciding what to keep or discard.
How Neural Mechanisms Affected The Hoarders
The researchers from Hartford Hospital in Connecticut, and Yale University made three important findings after examining the brain images:
- The hoarders in the study group chose to keep relatively more of their junk mail.
- They also took longer to decide whether to keep items, than the OCD and control groups.
- And finally, hoarders reported greater anxiety, indecisiveness and sadness than the other groups.
What Was Happening Inside the Hoarder’s Brains?
However, the research team was not done yet with proving that neural mechanisms affect hoarding. They noticed there were two specific brain regions where functional magnetic resonance imaging revealed incisive differences:
- The Anterior Cingulate Cortex which links emotions and pain.
- The Insula which becomes excited during periods of anxiety.
Both these two brain regions were more active in hoarder’s brains during the experiment we described. This in turn suggests that decisions about possessions are hampered by abnormal activity in brain regions, that are used to identify the emotional significance of things.
“They lose the ability to make relative judgments,” the lead researcher told UK National Health Service. “And so the decision becomes absolutely overwhelming and aversive to them.”
The Technical Background to This Report
Most behavioural scientists accept that hoarding disorder is a separate condition, apart from the obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) cluster. However, to date they have tended to accept that the frontal brain regions played the dominant role.
But this study locates the drivers deeper in the brain, in the Anterior Cingulate Cortex and the Insula. This further confirms that hoarding is not a conscious or deliberate decision, and why hoarders are so protective of their clutter.
Where to Get More Specialist Advice
Avery Associates offers a house clearance service in deceased estates and hoarded homes. Therefore, we cannot offer advice on whether to clear a hoarded home, and when. That decision is best taken by social workers who understand these matters.
What we do offer is a top-rate de-cluttering service throughout Greater London and the Home Counties. But please don’t take our word for it. Visit our customer feed-back page first, for an interdependent opinion. Then phone us at 0800 567 7769 or 0208 640 00 44 to get the ball rolling.
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