ArticleJournal of behavior therapy and experimental psychiatry2024
Externally orienting cues improve cognitive control in OCD.
Article in Journal of behavior therapy and experimental psychiatry, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
What it found
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Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed, 4 citations in OpenAlex.
- Theta-Alpha Dysregulation reveals impaired endogenous cognitive control in adolescent Obsessive-Compulsive disorder.NeuroImage. Clinical · 2026Article
- The rollercoaster of obsessive-compulsive disorder: How chronotype and time of day affect behavioral inhibition in adults with OCD.Journal of mood and anxiety disorders · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
BACKGROUND AND
objectivesAn executive overload model of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) posits that broad difficulties with executive functioning in OCD result from an overload on the executive system by obsessive thoughts. It implies that, if individuals with OCD "snap out" of their obsessive thoughts, their performance on neurocognitive tasks will improve.
methodsWe test this prediction using the revised Attention Network Test, ANT-R, and distinct subsamples of data from unmedicated OCD and healthy controls (HC). ANT-R includes Simon and Flanker tasks; in both, incongruent trials take longer to resolve ('conflict costs'). On some trials, a warning cue helps participants to respond faster ('alerting benefits'). In OCD (N = 34) and HC (N = 46), matched on age, IQ, and sex, we tested (1) the effect of OCD on alerting benefits, and (2) the effect of OCD on warning cue related reductions in conflict costs. In a distinct subsample of OCD (N = 32) and HC (N = 51), we assessed whether alerting benefits and cue-related reductions in conflict costs are associated differently with different OCD symptoms.
resultsA warning cue can help individuals with OCD more than HC to improve performance on Simon and Flanker tasks. This effect is positively associated with severity of contamination symptoms. LIMITATIONS: This study did not directly assess how distracted participants are by obsessive thoughts. It relied on the ANT-R subtraction measures. Symptom severity was assessed using self-report measures.
conclusionsDifficulties in resolving conflict during decision-making in OCD can be modulated by a warning cue presented immediately before an attentional task.
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Registered trials
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