Antisaccade Performance in Adolescent Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: Evidence from a Familial-Risk Design

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Psychiatry
• Genetics

Background:

• Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a debilitating mental health condition.
• Identifying reliable familial-risk markers for OCD is crucial for early intervention and understanding genetic contributions.
• Antisaccade task performance is a potential endophenotype that may reflect underlying neurobiological deficits.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare antisaccade (eye movement) performance in adolescents with OCD, their unaffected siblings, and healthy controls.
• To investigate if antisaccade performance can serve as a candidate familial-risk marker for OCD.
• To explore oculomotor execution via saccadic velocity as an additional measure.

Main Methods:

• Recruited 48 adolescents with OCD, 35 unaffected siblings, and 39 healthy controls (ages 12-18).
• Utilized an eye-tracking device to administer an antisaccade task.
• Measured antisaccade correct response rate, latency, and saccadic velocity.

Main Results:

• Adolescents with OCD exhibited lower correct response rates and longer latencies on the antisaccade task compared to healthy controls.
• Unaffected siblings showed intermediate antisaccade performance between the OCD and control groups.
• Regression analyses confirmed that both OCD diagnosis and sibling status were independently associated with antisaccade performance metrics.

Conclusions:

• Impaired antisaccade performance is not exclusive to OCD but is also present in unaffected siblings, suggesting a familial link.
• Antisaccade task performance shows promise as a candidate familial-risk marker and endophenotype for OCD.
• Further research is warranted to validate antisaccade performance in larger, diverse cohorts for OCD risk assessment.