Uncertainty, checking, and intolerance of uncertainty in subclinical obsessive compulsive disorder: An extended replication

Toffolo, Marieke B.J.; Hout, Marcel A. van den; Engelhard, Iris M.; Hooge, Ignace T. C.; Cath, Daniëlle C.

doi:10.1016/j.jocrd.2014.08.004

Cited by 26 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 35 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Using an implicit zero uncertain condition in a probabilistic deck drawing paradigm (Stern et al, 2010) in which the subjects identified the card deck from which the 4 cards were drawn and rated the certainty of their decision, OCD patients were shown to experience higher subjective uncertainty with no differences in objective uncertainty compared to healthy volunteers (HV) (Stern et al, 2013). However, not all studies support this theory of uncertainty intolerance in OCD (Sarawgi et al, 2013;Toffolo et al, 2014;Pushkarskaya et al, 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The ease and sureness of a decision: evidence accumulation of conflict and uncertainty

Mandali

Weidacker

Kim

et al. 2019

Brain

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The likelihood of an outcome (uncertainty or sureness) and the similarity between choices (conflict or ease of a decision) are often critical to decision making. We often ask ourselves: how likely are we to win or lose? And how different is this option's likelihood from the other? Uncertainty is a characteristic of the stimulus and conflict between stimuli, but these dissociable processes are often confounded. Here, applying a novel hierarchical drift diffusion approach, we study their interaction using a sequential learning task in healthy volunteers and pathological groups characterized by compulsive behaviours, by posing it as an evidence accumulation problem. The variables, Conflict-difficult or easy (difference between reward probabilities of the stimuli) and Uncertainty-low, medium or high (inverse U-shaped probability-uncertainty function) were then used to extract threshold ('a'amount of evidence accumulated before making a decision) and drift rate ('v'information processing speed) parameters. Critically, when a decision was both difficult (high conflict) and uncertain, relative to other conditions, healthy volunteers unexpectedly accumulated less evidence with lower decision thresholds and accuracy rates at chance levels. In contrast, patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder had slower processing speeds during these difficult uncertain decisions; yet, despite this more cautious approach, performed suboptimally with poorer accuracy relative to healthy volunteers below that of chance level. Thus, faced with a difficult uncertain decision, healthy controls are capable of rapid possibly random decisions, displaying almost a willingness to 'walk away', whereas those with obsessive compulsive disorder become more deliberative and cautious but despite appearing to learn the differential contingencies, still perform poorly. These observations might underlie disordered behaviours characterized by pathological uncertainty or doubt despite compulsive checking with impaired performance. In contrast, alcohol dependent subjects show a different pattern relative to healthy controls with difficulties in adjusting their behavioural patterns with slower drift rates or processing speed despite decisions being easy or low conflict. We emphasize the multidimensional nature of compulsive behaviours and the utility of computational models in detecting subtle underlying processes relative to behavioural measures. These observations have implications for targeted behavioural interventions for specific cognitive impairments across psychiatric disorders.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The ease and sureness of a decision: evidence accumulation of conflict and uncertainty

Mandali

Weidacker

Kim

et al. 2019

Brain

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…IU is defined as “a dispositional characteristic that results from a set of negative beliefs about uncertainty and its implications and involves the tendency to react negatively on an emotional, cognitive, and behavioural level to uncertain situations and events” (p.216) [ 17 ]. Originally studied as a predictor of worry and general anxiety disorder (GAD [ 18 ]), in the last decade researchers have recognised IU as a predictor for a wide range of psychopathologies, including anxiety and depression [ 19 – 21 ], obsessive-compulsive symptoms [ 22 ], emotional problems [ 23 , 24 ] and psychosis [ 25 ]. The literature on IU and its associated psychopathologies is fast growing, providing evidence for cognitive, behavioural and neural correlates of IU [ 26 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Predicting intolerance of uncertainty in individuals with eating disorder symptoms

et al. 2017

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

BackgroundIntolerance of Uncertainty (IU) is recognized for its contribution to various psychopathologies, in particular anxiety and depression. Studies highlight the relevance of IU for Eating Disorders (EDs) however, potential factors contributing to IU in EDs remain unstudied.MethodsThree hundred and forty-nine women with ED symptoms and 214 individuals without ED symptoms were recruited and compared on levels of IU, insecure (anxious and avoidant) attachment styles, extraversion and openness. Secondly, the contribution of these factors to IU were tested.ResultsCompared to the non-ED group, the ED group scored higher on IU, insecure attachment, and lower on extraversion and openness. Regression analyses confirmed that higher insecure attachment, and lower extraversion predicted higher IU scores in the ED group, and that insecure attachment predicted higher IU scores in the non-ED group.ConclusionsResults confirm the relevance of IU to ED, and demonstrate that personality traits and insecure attachment styles contribute to IU in ED. Findings add to the growing literature on IU in ED and suggest that people with EDs may benefit from clinical interventions targeting IU.

show abstract

“…In a first study, individuals with sub-clinical OCD indeed responded with more checking than others (Toffolo, van den Hout, Hooge, Engelhard, & Cath, 2013). This effect was replicated in a further study that showed a 'dose-response relationship': the higher the OCD scores, the more checking after induced uncertainty (Toffolo, van den Hout, Engelhard, Hooge, & Cath, 2014). This suggested that OCD patients would show the response to an even larger degree.…”

Section: Research On Analogue Samplesmentioning

confidence: 83%

Thoughts on Experimental Psychopathology

Hout

Engelhard

McNally

2016

Psychopathology Review

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Over the years, Experimental Psychopathology has become a major research discipline. In this article, we sketch some historical roots of Experimental Psychopathology and its current disciplinary context. We also outline the logic behind Experimental Psychopathology and discuss some issues raised in the articles in this special issue, including reductionism in this type of research, the use of analogue samples, and the use of self-report measures. Finally, we describe some future directions to increase our understanding of the causal mechanisms of mental disorders, including the new network modeling approach to psychopathology that fits well with Experimental Psychopathology and the way these approaches may reinforce each other. The field has witnessed the emergence and acceptance of many evidence-based treatments, but the room for clinical improvement is large. Experimental Psychopathology should be one of the disciplines to occupy that space.

show abstract

Uncertainty, checking, and intolerance of uncertainty in subclinical obsessive compulsive disorder: An extended replication

Cited by 26 publications

References 35 publications

The ease and sureness of a decision: evidence accumulation of conflict and uncertainty

The ease and sureness of a decision: evidence accumulation of conflict and uncertainty

Predicting intolerance of uncertainty in individuals with eating disorder symptoms

Thoughts on Experimental Psychopathology

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About