Conditional-associative learning in eating disorders: a comparison with OCD

The acquisition of conditional associations using neutral and individually threatening verbal stimuli was assessed in 16 females with anorexia nervosa (AN), obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), bulimia nervosa and normal controls, respectively. Groups did not differ in terms of age, sex, intelligence, depression, verbal memory and verbal fluency measures. Patients and controls were widely comparable on tests assessing neuropsychological functioning. In the conditional-associative learning (CAL)-task only anorectic and OCD-patients displayed an impaired performance with neutral material but not with individually threatening material. Such a deficit was not evident in bulimics or in normal controls. These findings support the assumptions from functional neuroimaging investigations in AN and OCD and provide evidence that obsessive and compulsive behavior could have its origin within common neurobiological dysfunctions. The CAL possibly serves as a functional correlate of a neurophysiological dysfunction in obsessive-compulsive spectrum disorders.