Assessing OCD Subtypes: Conflict Monitoring through the Erikson Flanker Task
Mentor 1
Hanjoo Lee
Start Date
10-5-2022 10:00 AM
Description
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is a disorder that can cause distress to individuals through unwanted, recurring thoughts (obsessions) and/ or behaviors (compulsions). Obsessions can be categorized into two subtypes, autogenous obsessions (AOs) which are unrealistic, threatening mental intrusions (e.g., unacceptable violent thoughts) and reactive obsessions (ROs) which are realistic aversive mental intrusions (e.g., contamination concerns). Cognitive intrusions in OCD may reflect deficits in interference control and conflict monitoring. Previous studies have not compared the difference between AO and RO subtypes in a nonclinical sample or whether they differ in interference control. This study aims to investigate the behavioral performance of AO and RO subtypes in a classical interference control task, namely Flanker. The study included 28 predominantly undergraduate students; no clinical populations were studied. All participants completed the Revised Obsessive Intrusive Inventory (ROII) and a computerized Eriksen Flanker task that measured their conflict monitoring performance. The task, consisting of a set of 480 trials, asks participants to inhibit their attention to the irrelevant stimuli (incongruent) to respond to a relevant target stimulus (congruent). ANOVA results showed no group differences in interference control and accuracy. However, there was a significant negative correlation between higher scores of RO and the overall accuracy (r = 0.13, p < 0.05), indicating that higher RO symptoms were associated with lower overall accuracy. No correlation was found for interference control. Studies suggests that deficits in processing interference control are greater in AO patients compared to RO, but our data does not support this difference. The negative correlation between ROs and accuracy is important because it suggests that individuals with RO symptoms have a more difficult time maintaining higher accuracy. However, limitations of this study are that a clinical population was not used, and the results need to be compared with a healthy group with lower OC symptoms.
Assessing OCD Subtypes: Conflict Monitoring through the Erikson Flanker Task
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is a disorder that can cause distress to individuals through unwanted, recurring thoughts (obsessions) and/ or behaviors (compulsions). Obsessions can be categorized into two subtypes, autogenous obsessions (AOs) which are unrealistic, threatening mental intrusions (e.g., unacceptable violent thoughts) and reactive obsessions (ROs) which are realistic aversive mental intrusions (e.g., contamination concerns). Cognitive intrusions in OCD may reflect deficits in interference control and conflict monitoring. Previous studies have not compared the difference between AO and RO subtypes in a nonclinical sample or whether they differ in interference control. This study aims to investigate the behavioral performance of AO and RO subtypes in a classical interference control task, namely Flanker. The study included 28 predominantly undergraduate students; no clinical populations were studied. All participants completed the Revised Obsessive Intrusive Inventory (ROII) and a computerized Eriksen Flanker task that measured their conflict monitoring performance. The task, consisting of a set of 480 trials, asks participants to inhibit their attention to the irrelevant stimuli (incongruent) to respond to a relevant target stimulus (congruent). ANOVA results showed no group differences in interference control and accuracy. However, there was a significant negative correlation between higher scores of RO and the overall accuracy (r = 0.13, p < 0.05), indicating that higher RO symptoms were associated with lower overall accuracy. No correlation was found for interference control. Studies suggests that deficits in processing interference control are greater in AO patients compared to RO, but our data does not support this difference. The negative correlation between ROs and accuracy is important because it suggests that individuals with RO symptoms have a more difficult time maintaining higher accuracy. However, limitations of this study are that a clinical population was not used, and the results need to be compared with a healthy group with lower OC symptoms.
