Impaired Goal-Directed Planning in Transdiagnostic Compulsivity Is Explained by Uncertainty About Learned Task...

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Neuroscience
• Computational Psychiatry

Background:

• Compulsivity is characterized by reduced goal-directed decision-making and increased habitual behaviors.
• The underlying cause of this impairment in internal world modeling remains unclear.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate if uncertainty in internal world models contributes to impaired goal-directed decision-making in compulsivity.
• To characterize how individuals build internal models and quantify individual differences.

Main Methods:

• Adapted a gamified decision-making task to assess internal model formation.
• Employed computational modeling to analyze behavior and individual differences.
• Collected data from two large samples (N=551, N=1322) and longitudinal data (2 weeks, 3 months, 1 year).

Main Results:

• Higher compulsivity and intrusive thoughts correlated with slower learning and less certain environmental representations.
• Uncertainty in the internal model mediated the relationship between compulsive symptoms and reduced goal-directed behavior.
• Decision-making behavior showed relative stability over 3 months and 1 year.

Conclusions:

• Reduced goal-directed behavior in compulsivity stems from less certain internal world models.
• This uncertainty may represent a stable, trait-level vulnerability for compulsive symptoms.