Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 23, 2026
09:14
Exploring the Neural Correlates of Cognitive Reappraisal in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder Using Task-based Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Published on: March 14, 2025
Subjective uncertainty and limbic hyperactivation in obsessive-compulsive disorder.
Emily R Stern1, Robert C Welsh, Richard Gonzalez
1Department of Psychiatry, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA. emily.stern@mssm.edu
Human Brain Mapping
|March 31, 2012
Summary
Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) patients exhibit heightened uncertainty and brain activity in decision-making, even without objective doubt. This suggests a neural basis for the characteristic doubt in OCD.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Psychiatry
- Cognitive Psychology
Background:
- Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is linked to pathological uncertainty and compulsive evidence-gathering.
- This uncertainty drives behaviors aimed at reducing doubt about actions or outcomes.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate neural functioning in OCD patients versus controls during decision-making with manipulated uncertainty.
- To examine brain activation patterns related to subjective certainty and objective uncertainty.
Main Methods:
- Event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used.
- Participants rated subjective certainty in response to evidence for decisions.
- Objective uncertainty was manipulated via displayed probabilities.
Main Results:
- OCD patients reported greater uncertainty than controls on decisions with no objective uncertainty.
- Patients showed increased activation in limbic/paralimbic regions (vmPFC, amygdala, insula, etc.).
- Increased inter-region connectivity was observed in the patient group's brain network.
Conclusions:
- OCD is associated with hyperactivation in a specific brain network during decision-making.
- This neural hyperactivation may underlie the heightened subjective doubt characteristic of OCD.
- Findings highlight the role of internal valuation and internally-focused thought in OCD-related uncertainty.
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