Differential role of visuospatial working memory in the propensity toward uncertainty in patients with obsessive–compulsive disorder and in healthy subjects

Lambrecq, Virginie; Rotgé, Jean-Yves; Jaafari, Nématollah; Aouizerate, Bruno; Langbour, Nicolas; Bioulac, Bernard; Liégeois‐Chauvel, Catherine; Burbaud, Pierre; Guehl, Dominique

doi:10.1017/s0033291713002730

Cited by 13 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 47 publications

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“…For example, as obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is known to be associated with visuospatial working memory deficits [29], intolerance of uncertainty is also considered to be an essential ingredient of OCD symptoms. Current research results support a correlation between the two constructs, as trials with greater uncertainty were found to show a decrease in visuospatial working memory efficiency to 65% of usual performance in OCD patients, but not in healthy subjects [30]. Essentially, deficient working memory performance correlates with the predisposition to experience uncertainty in healthy subjects.…”

Section: Uncertainty and Working Memorysupporting

confidence: 57%

Basic Psychosocial and Biological Contributors to Confirmation Bias

Chen¹

2021

Proceedings of the 2021 International Conference on Public Relations and Social Sciences (ICPRSS 2021)

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Like every natural phenomenon in the world, psychological phenomena take on mechanisms that give rise to them. Without exception, confirmation bias emerges from mechanisms that increase the chances for a person to assert information complacently once a certain threshold is met. The literature on confirmation bias (CB) points to several social, cognitive, and emotional factors in facilitating CB, and more recent work illustrates the neural correlates to some of these factors. However, what is missing in the science on CB are investigations into more "basic" factors that may lead to CB and constitute the more basic "ingredients" that support and evoke the human mind. The author argues that at least three fundamental factors are uncertainty, valence, and working memory. With these factors in mind, the author summarizes behavioral and neurobiological correlates of CB, mechanisms associated with these behavioral and brain manifestations of CB, and gaps in the literature where a focus on studying uncertainty, valence, and working memory may prove instructive. The author further argues these factors may explain current findings in CB and proposes a model wherein these factors interact mechanistically to give rise to CB.

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Section: Uncertainty and Working Memorysupporting

confidence: 57%

Basic Psychosocial and Biological Contributors to Confirmation Bias

Chen¹

2021

Proceedings of the 2021 International Conference on Public Relations and Social Sciences (ICPRSS 2021)

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“…Finally, this task controls for working memory by using a single stimulus presentation. Other perceptual paradigms assessed in OCD have studied working memory (Lambrecq et al , 2013), perceptual visual deficits (Kim et al , 2008) and uncertainty (Rotge et al , 2008; Toffolo et al , 2013; van den Hout et al , 2009) without specifically focusing on the degree of uncertainty or evaluating decision formation. Many of these tasks did not control for working memory which may be particularly relevant in OCD given reported impairments in working memory (Chamberlain et al , 2007; Morein-Zamir et al , 2010) and in memory confidence and distrust (Dar, 2004; Hermans et al , 2008; van den Hout et al , 2009).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evidence Accumulation in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: the Role of Uncertainty and Monetary Reward on Perceptual Decision-Making Thresholds

Banca

Vestergaard

Rankov

et al. 2014

Neuropsychopharmacol

105

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The compulsive behaviour underlying obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) may be related to abnormalities in decision-making. The inability to commit to ultimate decisions, for example, patients unable to decide whether their hands are sufficiently clean, may reflect failures in accumulating sufficient evidence before a decision. Here we investigate the process of evidence accumulation in OCD in perceptual discrimination, hypothesizing enhanced evidence accumulation relative to healthy volunteers. Twenty-eight OCD patients and thirty-five controls were tested with a low-level visual perceptual task (random-dot-motion task, RDMT) and two response conflict control tasks. Regression analysis across different motion coherence levels and Hierarchical Drift Diffusion Modelling (HDDM) were used to characterize response strategies between groups in the RDMT. Patients required more evidence under high uncertainty perceptual contexts, as indexed by longer response time and higher decision boundaries. HDDM, which defines a decision when accumulated noisy evidence reaches a decision boundary, further showed slower drift rate towards the decision boundary reflecting poorer quality of evidence entering the decision process in patients under low uncertainty. With monetary incentives emphasizing speed and penalty for slower responses, patients decreased the decision thresholds relative to controls, accumulating less evidence in low uncertainty. These findings were unrelated to visual perceptual deficits and response conflict. This study provides evidence for impaired decision-formation processes in OCD, with a differential influence of high and low uncertainty contexts on evidence accumulation (decision threshold) and on the quality of evidence gathered (drift rates). It further emphasizes that OCD patients are sensitive to monetary incentives heightening speed in the speed-accuracy tradeoff, improving evidence accumulation.

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“…While checking, doubt, and IU seem inherently linked, the relation between them appears complex. For example, not only can doubt and IU contribute to checking, but checking may paradoxically promote doubt, reduced cognitive confidence, and even increased IU (Coleman et al, 2011; Lambrecq et al, 2014; van den Hout & Kindt, 2003).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Free operant observing in humans: a translational approach to compulsive certainty seeking

Morein‐Zamir

Shahper

Fineberg

et al. 2018

Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology

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Excessive checking is reported in non-clinical populations and is a pervasive symptom in obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). We implemented a free-operant task in humans, previously used in rats, wherein participants can “check” to reduce uncertainty. Participants can press an observing key to ascertain which of two main keys will, if pressed, currently lead to rewards. Over a series of experiments, we found that punishment robustly increased observing in non-clinical participants and that observing persisted long after punishment was removed. Moreover, participants appeared insensitive to the initial costs of checking, and a threefold increase in the effort required to observe served to deter participants only to a limited degree. We also assessed observing in OCD patients with no known comorbidities. The patients observed more than control participants and were abnormally insensitive to the introduction of punishment. These findings support the translational value of the task, with similar behaviours in humans and rodents. This paradigm may serve as a unifying platform, promoting interaction between different approaches to analyse adaptive and maladaptive certainty seeking behaviours. Specifically, we demonstrate how seemingly disparate theoretical and empirical approaches can be reconciled synergistically to promote a combined behavioural and cognitive account of certainty seeking.

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Differential role of visuospatial working memory in the propensity toward uncertainty in patients with obsessive–compulsive disorder and in healthy subjects

Cited by 13 publications

References 47 publications

Basic Psychosocial and Biological Contributors to Confirmation Bias

Basic Psychosocial and Biological Contributors to Confirmation Bias

Evidence Accumulation in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: the Role of Uncertainty and Monetary Reward on Perceptual Decision-Making Thresholds

Free operant observing in humans: a translational approach to compulsive certainty seeking

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