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Doubts about actions and flanker incongruity-related potentials and performance
Mattie Tops1, Albertus A Wijers
1Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Groningen, Grote Kruisstraat 2/1, 9712 TS Groningen, The Netherlands. topsm@fsw.leidenuniv.nl
Neuroscience Letters
|April 12, 2012
Summary
Doubts about Actions (DaA) scores in healthy individuals predict less interference from distracting flankers in a cognitive task. This suggests attentional strategies linked to obsessive-compulsive disorder traits exist in the general population.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Neuroscience
- Neuropsychology
- Psychophysiology
Background:
- Brain networks for flanker incongruity and error processing are implicated in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).
- Increased "Doubts about Actions" (DaA) scores are a characteristic of OCD.
- Previous research links OCD symptom severity to cognitive task performance.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate if DaA scores predict reduced interference from incompatible flankers in a healthy population.
- To explore the relationship between DaA scores and cognitive control during an Eriksen flanker task.
- To determine if DaA is a unique predictor compared to other trait measures.
Main Methods:
- Sixteen healthy, right-handed female participants completed an Eriksen flanker task.
- Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded during task performance.
- Behavioral performance and N2 amplitude changes were analyzed in relation to DaA scores.
Main Results:
- Higher DaA scores correlated with less behavioral interference from incompatible flankers.
- DaA scores predicted a smaller increase in N2 amplitude for incongruent vs. congruent trials.
- Other trait measures like concern over mistakes and punishment sensitivity did not show similar relationships.
Conclusions:
- DaA scores in healthy individuals are associated with reduced flanker interference, suggesting enhanced attentional control or specific cognitive strategies.
- These findings indicate that attentional capacities or strategies observed in disorders like OCD may be present as traits in healthy populations.
- The study highlights a potential link between disorder-associated traits and cognitive control mechanisms in non-clinical samples.
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