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

Abstract

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.

Dissociable dopaminergic and pavlovian influences in goal-trackers and sign-trackers on a model of compulsive checking in OCD

“…Based on our recent work (Vousden et al 2020 ), we predicted that the quinpirole sensitization model of checking and subsequent addition of uncertainty, both of which escalate checking in previous ORT studies (d’Angelo et al 2017 ; Eagle et al 2014 ), might differentially influence checking escalation in sign-tracker and goal-tracker rats. We show that the adaptive/maladaptive nature of checking can be explored using the ORT, reinforcing the potential of this task for direct translation between rodent and human studies (d’Angelo et al 2017 ; Eagle et al 2014 ; Morein-Zamir et al 2018 ).…”

Computational modelling reveals contrasting effects on reinforcement learning and cognitive flexibility in stimulant use disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorder: remediating effects of dopaminergic D2/3 receptor agents

“…Checking behaviour, which can be a core symptom in OCD, was indeed modulated by D 2/3 agents in rats (Eagle et al 2014), in a translational laboratory model that has also captured increased checking in OCD (Morein-Zamir et al. 2018). Uncertainty is a feature common to both PRL and the translational model of checking behaviour.…”

Checking responses of goal- and sign-trackers are differentially affected by threat in a rodent analog of obsessive–compulsive disorder

“…To probe the psychological and neurobiological bases of checking, we previously developed a fully translational, rodent-to-human analog of OCDlike checking in rats that allows functional and dysfunctional checking to be assessed independently-the observingresponse task (ORT; Eagle et al 2014;Morein-Zamir et al 2018). To briefly summarize this task (Fig.…”