Threat processing in obsessive-compulsive disorder: Evidence from a modified negative priming task

Abstract

Individuals with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) often experience intrusive thoughts. These intrusions may be due to biases in information processing mechanisms, including attention, memory, and learning. To examine this hypothesis, we presented a modified negative priming (NP) paradigm with idiographically-selected words to 19 individuals with OCD (OCs) and 19 matched non-anxious control participants (NACs). The words included OCD-relevant threat, OCD-relevant positive, and neutral words. This paradigm typically elicits positive priming because participants may learn the contingency between the prime and probe that facilitates responding (Frings, C., & Wentura, D. (2006). Strategy effects counteract distractor inhibition: Negative priming with constantly absent probe distractors. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 32, 854-864). As predicted, NACs showed facilitation (i.e., positive priming) rather than NP for all word types, whereas OCs exhibited facilitation for only neutral words. For positive words, OCs exhibited no priming and for threat words they exhibited NP. These results suggest that for idiographic, OCDrelevant threat information, individuals with OCD show difficulty learning the contingency between the information in the prime and probe displays relative to the NACs.

Negative priming (cognitive inhibition) in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)

“…Since then, another well-designed study on OCD could not establish reduced negative priming in OCD (MacDonald, Antony, MacLeod, & Swinson, 1999), while yet two others found mixed evidence, depending on prime presentation time (McNally, Wilhelm, Buhlmann, & Shin, 2001), response-to-stimulus interval and illness subtype (Hoenig, Hochrein, Muller, & Wagner, 2002). The most recent study could only establish reduced negative priming for idiographic, OCD-relevant threat information but not for neutral material (Amir, Cobb, & Morrison, 2008). Salience and subjective importance of the threat stimuli likely made it harder for patients to ignore them.…”

Momentary Induction of Inhibitory Control and Its Effects on Uncertainty

“…One important bottom-up process is action tendency, defined as the automatic predisposition to engage in the specific action an object evokes (e.g., reaching out and turning a door handle). Modifying action tendencies to clinically-relevant items has been shown to reduce avoidance and improve treatment outcomes in anxiety disorders and substance use disorders, both featuring unwanted thoughts and behaviors ( Amir et al, 2008 ; Wiers et al, 2011 ). Moreover, OCD patients display enhanced action tendencies even to neutral stimuli ( Dayan et al, 2014 , 2017 ).…”

Online Cognitive Bias Modification of Interpretation for Children With Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

“…Intrusive and troubling thoughts that cause anxiety and distress (Obsessions), and give rise to behaviors, i.e. repeated to reduce anxiety (Compulsions), are the characteristics of OCD (Amir, Cobb, & Morrison, 2008;Amir, Najmi, & Morrison, 2009); however, these intrusions also occur in healthy individuals without any psychiatric diagnosis. Studies indicated that 80%-99% of the healthy population experience intrusive thoughts and impulses; however, those with OCD are more troubled by these thoughts and impulses, experience them for longer periods, and experience more difficulties ignoring them (Bradley et al, 2016;Calkins, Berman, & Wilhelm, 2013).…”