scholarly journals Arbitration between Action Strategies in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

2015 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 188-198 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patricia Gruner ◽  
Alan Anticevic ◽  
Daeyeol Lee ◽  
Christopher Pittenger

Decision making in a complex world, characterized both by predictable regularities and by frequent departures from the norm, requires dynamic switching between rapid habit-like, automatic processes and slower, more flexible evaluative processes. These strategies, formalized as “model-free” and “model-based” reinforcement learning algorithms, respectively, can lead to divergent behavioral outcomes, requiring a mechanism to arbitrate between them in a context-appropriate manner. Recent data suggest that individuals with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) rely excessively on inflexible habit-like decision making during reinforcement-driven learning. We propose that inflexible reliance on habit in OCD may reflect a functional weakness in the mechanism for context-appropriate dynamic arbitration between model-free and model-based decision making. Support for this hypothesis derives from emerging functional imaging findings. A deficit in arbitration in OCD may help reconcile evidence for excessive reliance on habit in rewarded learning tasks with an older literature suggesting inappropriate recruitment of circuitry associated with model-based decision making in unreinforced procedural learning. The hypothesized deficit and corresponding circuitry may be a particularly fruitful target for interventions, including cognitive remediation.

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Meltem I. Kasal ◽  
Lutfullah Besiroglu ◽  
Nabi Zorlu ◽  
Nur Dikmeer ◽  
Aslıhan Bilge ◽  
...  

AbstractRecent theories suggest a shift from model-based goal-directed to model-free habitual decision-making in obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD). However, it is yet unclear, whether this shift in the decision process is heritable. We investigated 32 patients with OCD, 27 unaffected siblings (SIBs) and 31 healthy controls (HCs) using the two-step task. We computed behavioral and reaction time analyses and fitted a computational model to assess the balance between model-based and model-free control. 80 subjects also underwent structural imaging. We observed a significant ordered effect for the shift towards model-free control in the direction OCD > SIB > HC in our computational parameter of interest. However less directed analyses revealed no shift towards model-free control in OCDs. Nonetheless, we found evidence for reduced model-based control in OCDs compared to HCs and SIBs via 2nd stage reaction time analyses. In this measure SIBs also showed higher levels of model-based control than HCs. Across all subjects these effects were associated with the surface area of the left medial/right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Moreover, correlations between bilateral putamen/right caudate volumes and these effects varied as a function of group: they were negative in SIBs and OCDs, but positive in HCs. Associations between fronto-striatal regions and model-based reaction time effects point to a potential endophenotype for OCD.


2015 ◽  
Vol 69 ◽  
pp. 166-173 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helen Pushkarskaya ◽  
David Tolin ◽  
Lital Ruderman ◽  
Ariel Kirshenbaum ◽  
J. MacLaren Kelly ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
Vol 89 (9) ◽  
pp. S359
Author(s):  
Darsol Seok ◽  
Reza Tadayon-Nejad ◽  
Wan-wa Wong ◽  
Joseph O'Neill ◽  
Jamie Feusner

2017 ◽  
Vol 47 (7) ◽  
pp. 1246-1258 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. U. Hauser ◽  
R. Iannaccone ◽  
R. J. Dolan ◽  
J. Ball ◽  
J. Hättenschwiler ◽  
...  

BackgroundObsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD) has been linked to functional abnormalities in fronto-striatal networks as well as impairments in decision making and learning. Little is known about the neurocognitive mechanisms causing these decision-making and learning deficits in OCD, and how they relate to dysfunction in fronto-striatal networks.MethodWe investigated neural mechanisms of decision making in OCD patients, including early and late onset of disorder, in terms of reward prediction errors (RPEs) using functional magnetic resonance imaging. RPEs index a mismatch between expected and received outcomes, encoded by the dopaminergic system, and are known to drive learning and decision making in humans and animals. We used reinforcement learning models and RPE signals to infer the learning mechanisms and to compare behavioural parameters and neural RPE responses of the OCD patients with those of healthy matched controls.ResultsPatients with OCD showed significantly increased RPE responses in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and the putamen compared with controls. OCD patients also had a significantly lower perseveration parameter than controls.ConclusionsEnhanced RPE signals in the ACC and putamen extend previous findings of fronto-striatal deficits in OCD. These abnormally strong RPEs suggest a hyper-responsive learning network in patients with OCD, which might explain their indecisiveness and intolerance of uncertainty.


2015 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 263-272 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giacomo Grassi ◽  
Stefano Pallanti ◽  
Lorenzo Righi ◽  
Martijn Figee ◽  
Mariska Mantione ◽  
...  

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