Emotional interference modulates performance monitoring in patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder.
BACKGROUND
Enhanced performance monitoring in patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), typically measured by error-related negativity (ERN), provides evidence for the fronto-striatal model of OCD. Here, we examined whether performance monitoring in OCD patients is modulated by emotional interference induced by task-irrelevant emotional stimuli.


METHODS
A modified version of the flanker task with emotional face stimuli (fearful vs. neutral faces) was performed by 22 OCD patients and 22 healthy control subjects while electroencephalogram signals were recorded. Response-locked ERN was defined as the mean amplitude from 20 to 120msec after the response.


RESULTS
During trials with fearful face stimuli, OCD patients showed larger ERN amplitude than control subjects, but there was no difference between groups during trials with neutral face stimuli. Whereas OCD patients exhibited enhanced ERN amplitude in the fearful face condition compared with the neutral face condition, control subjects showed no variation between conditions. OCD patients also exhibited larger correct response negativity amplitude than control subjects in both fearful and neutral face conditions.


CONCLUSIONS
These results support the theory that OCD involves overactive performance monitoring and indicate that emotional interference modulates performance monitoring in patients with OCD, thus implying that affective function in the fronto-striatal network forms part of the neural basis of OCD.
['Roh|Daeyoung|D|', 'Chang|Jhin-Goo|JG|', 'Kim|Chan-Hyung|CH|']
D000328:Adult D001288:Attention D004644:Emotions D005071:Evoked Potentials D056344:Executive Function D005149:Facial Expression D005260:Female D006179:Gyrus Cinguli D006801:Humans D008297:Male D008875:Middle Aged D009771:Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder D011597:Psychomotor Performance
Error-related negativity Anterior cingulate cortex Event-related potential Obsessive–compulsive disorder