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Altered Error Monitoring and Decreased Flanker Task Accuracy in Pediatric Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

Gregory L Hanna1, Yanni Liu2, Lauren G Rentschler2

  • 1Department of Psychiatry, University of Michigan, 4250 Plymouth Road, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109-5766, USA. ghanna@med.umich.edu.

Child Psychiatry and Human Development
|May 25, 2024
PubMed

Insights

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) may involve errors in the brain's error monitoring system. This study found that individuals with OCD showed differences in brain responses to errors, specifically a reduced error positivity (ΔPe), which may affect response accuracy.

Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Psychiatry
  • Cognitive Science

Background:

  • The error-related negativity (ERN) and error positivity (Pe) are electrophysiological markers of error processing.
  • These components are investigated as potential biomarkers for obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).

Purpose of the Study:

  • To examine ERN, Pe, and flanker task performance in pediatric OCD cases compared to healthy controls (HC).
  • To investigate the relationship between these measures and clinical characteristics in OCD.

Main Methods:

  • 105 pediatric OCD cases and 105 age-matched HC (ages 8-18) completed a flanker task.
  • Event-related potentials (ERN, Pe) and behavioral accuracy were recorded and analyzed.
  • Clinical measures, including age at symptom onset, were assessed.

Main Results:

  • Higher flanker task accuracy correlated with increased ERN amplitude and a larger difference between Pe and correct positivity amplitudes (ΔPe) across all participants.
  • OCD cases exhibited increased ERN amplitude but decreased ΔPe and flanker task accuracy compared to HC.
  • These differences persisted in tic-related and non-tic-related OCD subgroups.
  • A lower ΔPe was associated with earlier age at OCD symptom onset.

Conclusions:

  • The findings support the hypothesis of impaired error monitoring in OCD.
  • A reduced ΔPe may indicate compromised error signaling and response uncertainty in individuals with OCD.

Keywords:
Error positivityError-related negativityFlanker taskObsessive–compulsive disorderTic disorderYouth

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