Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Experiment Videos

Object alternation test--is it sensitive enough to detect cognitive dysfunction in obsessive-compulsive disorder?

Anne Katrin Kuelz1, Dieter Riemann, Roland Zahn

  • 1Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Hospital of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany.

European Psychiatry : the Journal of the Association of European Psychiatrists
|October 27, 2004
PubMed
Summary

Related Concept Videos

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by
Same author

Risks Associated With Benzodiazepine Long-Term Use in Chronic Insomnia: A Systematic Review and (Network) Meta-Analysis.

Journal of sleep research·2026
Same author

Targeting hyperarousal to improve sleep: A network intervention analysis of a digital intervention for insomnia.

Behaviour research and therapy·2026
Same author

Cognitive and emotional correlates of sleep in the peripartum period: a systematic review.

Behaviour research and therapy·2026
Same author

Insomnia disorder.

Nature reviews. Disease primers·2026
Same author

Sleep health and mental health: A position statement from the National Sleep Foundation.

Sleep health·2026
Same author

Sleep-Related Attentional Bias in Insomnia: A Drift Diffusion Model Approach.

Journal of sleep research·2026

Obsessive-compulsive disorder patients did not differ from controls on the object alternation test. However, OCD patients showed deficits in visuo-spatial working memory, challenging the OAT

Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Psychiatry
  • Cognitive Psychology

Background:

  • Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a debilitating mental health condition.
  • Orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) dysfunction is hypothesized in OCD pathophysiology.
  • The object alternation test (OAT) is used to assess OFC function.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To evaluate the utility of a computerized object alternation test (OAT) in unmedicated patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).
  • To investigate cognitive performance differences between OCD patients and healthy controls.

Main Methods:

  • A computerized object alternation test (OAT) was administered to unmedicated OCD patients and matched healthy controls.
  • Visuo-spatial working memory was assessed using a separate task.

Related Experiment Videos

Main Results:

  • OCD patients performed comparably to controls on the computerized OAT.
  • OCD patients exhibited significantly lower scores on the visuo-spatial working memory task compared to controls.
  • These findings suggest the OAT may not be a sensitive measure for detecting orbitofrontal dysfunction in OCD.

Conclusions:

  • The object alternation test (OAT) may not reliably detect orbitofrontal dysfunction in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).
  • Visuo-spatial working memory deficits are present in unmedicated OCD patients.
  • Further research is needed to identify sensitive cognitive markers for OCD.