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Updated: Jul 17, 2026

Signal Attenuation as a Rat Model of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
Published on: January 9, 2015
Physiologic responses to loud tones in individuals with obsessive-compulsive disorder
Ulrike Buhlmann1, Sabine Wilhelm, Thilo Deckersbach
1Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA. buhlmann@psych.mgh.harvard.edu
Objective:
To determine if individuals with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) are characterized by larger eyeblink and/or autonomic responses to sudden, loud (startling) tones.
Methods:
Twenty participants with OCD and 21 mentally healthy control participants were presented with 15 consecutive 95-db, 500-msec, 1000-Hz tones with 0-msec rise and fall times at the same time orbicularis oculi electromyogram (EMG), heart rate (HR), and skin conductance (SC) responses were measured.
Results:
Participants with OCD produced larger average HR responses and a slower decline in SC responses across the 15-tone presentations. A trend for larger than average eyeblink EMG responses in participants with OCD was also observed.
Conclusion:
These results provide laboratory support for enhanced HR reactivity and a slower decline in SC responses to startling stimuli in individuals with OCD.
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