Dataset Information

Altered source memory retrieval is associated with pathological doubt in obsessive-compulsive disorder.

ABSTRACT: Individuals with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) often complain of doubt related to memory. As neuropsychological research has demonstrated that individuals with OCD tend to focus on details and miss the larger context, the construct of source (contextual) memory may be particularly relevant to memory complaints in OCD. Memory for object versus contextual information relies on partially distinct regions within the prefrontal cortex, parietal and medial temporal lobe, and may be differentially impacted by OCD. In the present study, we sought to test the hypothesis that individuals with OCD exhibit impaired source memory retrieval using a novel memory paradigm - The Memory for Rooms Test (MFRT) - a four-room memory task in which participants walk through four rooms and attempt to encode and remember objects. Demographically matched individuals with OCD and healthy controls studied objects in the context of four rooms, and then completed a memory retrieval test while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). While no differences were observed in source memory accuracy, individuals with OCD exhibited greater task related activation in the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) relative to healthy controls during correct source memory retrieval. During correct object recognition, individuals with OCD failed to recruit the dorsolateral prefrontal(DLPFC)/premotor, left mPFC, and right parietal regions to the same extent as healthy controls. Our results suggest abnormal recruitment of frontal-parietal and PCC regions during source verses object memory retrieval in OCD. Within the OCD group, activation in the PCC and the premotor/DLPFC was associated with greater pathological doubt. This finding is consistent with the observation that OCD patients often experience extreme doubt, even when memory performance is intact.

SUBMITTER: Olson CA

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4720123 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Altered source memory retrieval is associated with pathological doubt in obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Olson Christy A CA Hale Lisa R LR Hamilton Nancy N Powell Joshua N JN Martin Laura E LE Savage Cary R CR

Behavioural brain research 20150824

Individuals with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) often complain of doubt related to memory. As neuropsychological research has demonstrated that individuals with OCD tend to focus on details and miss the larger context, the construct of source (contextual) memory may be particularly relevant to memory complaints in OCD. Memory for object versus contextual information relies on partially distinct regions within the prefrontal cortex, parietal and medial temporal lobe, and may be differentiall ...[more]

PMID: 26315458

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Project description:Doubt is subjective uncertainty about one's perceptions and recall. It can impair decision-making and is a prominent feature of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). We propose that evaluation of doubt during decision-making provides a useful endophenotype with which to study the underlying pathophysiology of OCD and potentially other psychopathologies. For the current study, we developed a new instrument, the Doubt Questionnaire, to clinically assess doubt. The random dot motion task was used to measure reaction time and subjective certainty, at varying levels of perceptual difficulty, in individuals who scored high and low on doubt, and in individuals with and without OCD. We found that doubt scores were significantly higher in OCD cases than controls. Drift diffusion modeling revealed that high doubt scores predicted slower evidence accumulation than did low doubt scores; and OCD diagnosis lower than controls. At higher levels of dot coherence, OCD participants exhibited significantly slower drift rates than did controls (q<0.05 for 30%, and 45% coherence; q<0.01 for 70% coherence). In addition, at higher levels of coherence, high doubt subjects exhibited even slower drift rates and reaction times than low doubt subjects (q<0.01 for 70% coherence). Moreover, under high coherence conditions, individuals with high doubt scores reported lower certainty in their decisions than did those with low doubt scores. We conclude that the Doubt Questionnaire is a useful instrument for measuring doubt. Compared to those with low doubt, those with high doubt accumulate evidence more slowly and report lower certainty when making decisions under conditions of low uncertainty. High doubt may affect the decision-making process in individuals with OCD. The dimensional doubt measure is a useful endophenotype for OCD research and could enable computationally rigorous and neurally valid understanding of decision-making and its pathological expression in OCD and other disorders.

Dataset Information

Altered source memory retrieval is associated with pathological doubt in obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Publications

Altered source memory retrieval is associated with pathological doubt in obsessive-compulsive disorder.

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