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Signal Attenuation as a Rat Model of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

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Post-error slowing in anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorders.

Meryl Rueppel¹, Kristin A Mannella¹, Kate D Fitzgerald¹

¹Department of Psychiatry, University of Michigan Medical School, 4250 Plymouth Rd, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109, USA.

Cognitive, Affective & Behavioral Neuroscience

|December 30, 2021

Summary

Patients with anxiety disorders show greater post-error slowing (PES) than those with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) or healthy controls. This suggests excessive PES may uniquely characterize anxiety disorders, reflecting behavioral adjustment differences.

Keywords:

Anxiety Error monitoring OCD Post-error behavioral adjustments Post-error slowing

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Area of Science:

Neuroscience
Psychiatry
Cognitive Psychology

Background:

Altered brain responses to errors are noted in anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorders (OCD).
Cognitive control abnormalities are suspected in both conditions.
Behavioral measures of cognitive control have not been directly compared between these patient groups.

Purpose of the Study:

To compare post-error slowing (PES), a measure of behavioral adjustment after errors, between individuals with anxiety disorders, OCD, and healthy controls.
To determine if PES differences exist across these diagnostic categories.
To investigate if excessive PES uniquely characterizes anxiety disorders.

Main Methods:

A go/no-go task was administered to participants with anxiety disorders (N=103), OCD (N=118), and healthy controls (N=28 and N=60).
Post-error slowing (PES) was measured as the difference in reaction time between errors and subsequent correct trials.
Analyses controlled for age, overall reaction time, and overall accuracy.

Main Results:

Patients with anxiety disorders exhibited significantly more PES than both OCD patients and healthy volunteers.
Participants with OCD did not differ from healthy volunteers in PES.
In adolescents, the anxiety group showed more PES compared to the OCD and healthy groups.

Conclusions:

Excessive post-error slowing (PES) may be a unique behavioral characteristic of anxiety disorders.
This finding suggests distinct mechanisms of cognitive control and behavioral adjustment in anxiety disorders compared to OCD and healthy individuals.
PES serves as a valuable behavioral index for differentiating anxiety disorders.