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16-03-2024 | Brief Report

Task Control in the Affordance Task as the Underlying Mechanism for the Imbalance Between the Goal-Directed and Habit Formation Systems in Obsessive–Compulsive Disorder

Auteurs: Hadar Naftalovich, Dan Sacks, Eldad Keha, Eyal Kalanthroff

Gepubliceerd in: Cognitive Therapy and Research

Abstract

Background and Objectives

The habit formation model of obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD) suggests that overreliance on stimulus-driven behaviors leads to repetitive compulsive rituals. Failure in task control, which leads to the stimulus-driven behaviors overriding the goal-driven system, could explain the mechanisms involved in this process.

Methods

Patients with OCD and non-psychiatric controls completed the affordance task to understand the role of task control in maintaining compulsive behaviors. In the affordance task, participants are required to respond to a stimulus with one hand, while the stimulus on screen triggers a motor activation in either the congruent (same) or incongruent (other) hand. The affordance effect (accuracy for incongruent minus congruent trials) measures task control—the ability to suppress irrelevant, stimulus-driven, behaviors.

Results

The affordance effect was larger in the OCD group, indicating a deficit in task control in those patients. Furthermore, a binary logistic regression analysis, using the affordances effect as a predictor and group as the outcome variable, revealed that the affordance effect correctly classified about 65% of the individuals with OCD compared to the non-psychiatric controls. The correlation between the affordance effect and OCD symptom-severity was not significant.

Limitations

Handedness was assessed through self-report and OCD symptoms were mild–moderate.

Conclusions

These findings strengthen the notion that task control deficits might account for the imbalance between the goal-directed and habit formation systems and that this deficit might be a risk factor for OCD but does not account for symptom-severity.

Alleen toegankelijk voor geautoriseerde gebruikers

Unlike other cognitive tasks, many affordance papers use accuracy as the sole measurement. For examples, see research by Helbig et al. (2006) and McNair and Harris (2014) on non-psychiatric individuals, and by Humphreys et al. (2010) in neuropsychiatric patients.

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Titel: Task Control in the Affordance Task as the Underlying Mechanism for the Imbalance Between the Goal-Directed and Habit Formation Systems in Obsessive–Compulsive Disorder
Auteurs: Hadar Naftalovich
Dan Sacks
Eldad Keha
Eyal Kalanthroff
Publicatiedatum: 16-03-2024
Uitgeverij: Springer US
Gepubliceerd in: Cognitive Therapy and Research
Print ISSN: 0147-5916
Elektronisch ISSN: 1573-2819
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10608-024-10469-x