External Error Monitoring in Subclinical Obsessive-Compulsive Subjects: Electrophysiological Evidence from a Gambling Task

Abstract

BackgroundFeedback-related negativity (FRN) is believed to be an important electrophysiology index of “external” negative feedback processing. Previous studies on FRN in obsessive-compulsive (OC) individuals are scarce and controversial. In these studies, anxiety symptoms were not evaluated in detail. However, OC disorders have a number of radical differences from anxiety disorders. It is necessary to study FRN and its neuroanatomical correlates in OC individuals without anxious symptoms.MethodsA total of 628 undergraduate students completed an OC questionnaire. We chose 14 students who scored in the upper 10% and 14 students who scored in the lowest 10% without anxiety symptoms as a subclinical OC group (SOC) and a low obsessive-compulsive group (LOC). The students all performed the revised Iowa Gambling Task. We used the event-related potentials (ERP) and standardized low-resolution brain electromagnetic tomography (sLORETA) to track external negative feedback processing and its substrate in the brain.ResultsOur study revealed poorer decision-making ability and greater FRN amplitudes in SOC subjects compared with LOC controls. The SOC subjects displayed anterior prefrontal cortex (aPFC) hyperactivation during the loss feedback condition. Specifically, we found an intercorrelation of current source density during the loss condition between the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) and aPFC in the LOC subjects but not in the SOC group.ConclusionsOur results support the notion that overactive external feedback error processing may reflect a candidate endophenotype of OC. We also provide important information on the dysfunction in the interaction between aPFC and dACC in populations with OC. Nevertheless, the findings support that OC may be distinguished from other anxiety disorders using a new electrophysiology perspective.

Reliability of the electrocortical response to gains and losses in the doors task

“…Thus, the internal consistency of a measure also puts a ceiling on how much true score is available to be associated with other variables (e.g., clinical correlates). The RewP, FN, and ΔRewP have all been examined as potential candidate biomarkers of various forms of psychopathology, including depressive symptoms, anxiety symptoms, and behavioral problems (Bress et al, ; Foti & Hajcak, ; Kessel et al, ; Kessel, Kujawa, Hajcak Proudfit, & Klein, ; Thoma, Edel, Suchan, & Bellebaum, ; Zhu et al, ). The most established and replicated of these associations is between depressive symptoms and the RewP or ΔRewP, but not the FN (Bress et al, ; Foti & Hajcak, ; Foti, Kotov et al, ).…”

Pick a Card, Any Card: The Relationship Between Anxiety, Obsessive-Compulsive Symptoms and Decision-Making

“…The question of whether anxiety moderates the relationship between OC symptoms and decision-making is one that will be addressed in the current study. Since researchers have found executive functioning deficits that indicate orbitofrontal impairment in nonclinical samples who score highly on OC measures (e.g., Spitznagel & Suhr, 2002; Zhu et al, 2014), this study will employ a non-clinical sample.…”

Executive functions as a potential neurocognitive endophenotype in anxiety disorders: A systematic review considering DSM-IV and DSM-5 diagnostic criteria classification

“…The most used task for the assessment of decision-making was the Iowa Gambling Task and all studies that used this test suggested that decision-making might qualify as an endophenotype for OCD. 23 , 51 , 54 - 56 An interesting issue is that, in the study of da Rocha et al (2008), 54 this neuropsychological function was also associated with the presence of the polymorphism of the serotonin transporter gene and verified that those with the short allele (s/Lg), i.e. low expression function, performed significantly worse on the test.…”

“…The deficits/impairments most frequently found in OCD, were related to the following abilities: behavioral reversal/alternation, 50 , 51 set-shifting/cognitive flexibility, 50 , 52 , 53 decision making, 23 , 51 , 54 - 56 response inhibition, 20 , 50 , 52 , 53 , 57 , 58 planning, 23 , 55 , 59 reversal learning, 60 spatial working memory 59 , 61 and sustained attention. 57 For a deeper analysis of the results found in the systematic review, the neuropsychological instruments were grouped in the Discussion section according to the components of executive function evaluated.…”

“…The participants of these studies were a subclinical obsessive-compulsive sample and a low obsessive-compulsive symptoms control sample. 56 , 57 It has been hypothesized that the current understanding of endophenotypes in psychiatric research is that these markers lie along a continuum in the population. Concerning this hypothesis, complementary investigations in the general population are needed.…”