Spatial behavior reflects the mental disorder in OCD patients with and without comorbid schizophrenia

Abstract

It seems as if both the OCD patients' focus on specific thoughts, and the contrasting wandering thoughts of schizophrenia patients, are reflected in the focused activity of the former and wandering from one place to the next of the latter.

Behavioral flexibility in an OCD mouse model: Impaired Pavlovian reversal learning in SAPAP3 mutants

“…Furthermore, patients with severe OCD tend to exhibit depressive symptoms, elaborate avoidance behavior, and high levels of anhedonia, all of which consistent with decreased general activity. Finally, it has been reported that OCD patients move around less in their homes during everyday life compared to healthy controls (42). However, whether diminished general activity is an underexplored symptom of OCD that could potentially be studied in SAPAP3 -/will have to be evaluated in future studies.…”

“…Although we focused on minimizing the potentially confounding effects of decreased SAPAP3 -/general activity on reversal learning, it cannot be excluded as a trait of potential OCD relevance. For instance, OCD shows high comorbidity with depression and anhedonia (40)(41)(42), pathologies that produce decreased activity marked by loss of motivation and inability to experience pleasure. Furthermore, patients with severe OCD tend to exhibit depressive symptoms, elaborate avoidance behavior, and high levels of anhedonia, all of which consistent with decreased general activity.…”

From an animal model to human patients: An example of a translational study on obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD)

“…From Gershoni et al (2013). stationary whereas Schizo-OCD patients wandered around a large space while performing the same motor task, as illustrated in Fig.…”

“…This is somewhat in contrast with the behavior of the quinpirole rats, which involves excessive traveling along the same path (Szechtman et al, 1994). Nonetheless, an example of the use of trajectories to characterize mental disorders is found in a comparison of patients suffering from pure OCD and patients suffering from comorbid schizophrenia and OCD (Schizo-OCD) (Gershoni et al, 2013). That study was based on comparing 10 motor tasks (e.g., leaving the house, cleaning a rug, etc.)…”

“…8. While stationary, OCD patients performed many in-place acts, usually manipulating objects that were within hand-reaching distance (Gershoni et al, 2013). These differences in spatial behavior may be viewed as a motor reflection of the mental differences between OCD and schizophrenia in cognition, attention, and brain malfunctioning.…”