Impaired generalization of reward but not loss in obsessive-compulsive disorder
Open accessAbstract
BACKGROUND: Generalizing from past experiences can be adaptive by allowing those experiences to guide behavior in new situations. Generalizing too much, however, can be maladaptive. For example, individuals with pathological anxiety are believed to overgeneralize emotional responses from past threats, broadening their scope of fears. Whether individuals with pathological anxiety overgeneralize in other situations remains unclear. METHODS: The present study (N = 57) used a monetary sensory preconditioning paradigm with rewards and losses to address this question in individuals with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and social anxiety disorder (SAD), comparing them to healthy comparison subjects (HC). In all groups, we tested direct learning of associations between cues and reward vs. loss outcomes, as well as generalization of learning to novel choice options. RESULTS: We found no differences between the three groups in the direct learning of stimuli with their outcomes: all subjects demonstrated intact stimulus-response learning by choosing rewarding options and avoiding negative ones. However, OCD subjects were less likely to generalize from rewards than either the SAD or HC groups, and this impairment was not found for losses. Additionally, greater deficits in reward generalization were correlated with severity of threat estimation, as measured by a subscale of the Obsessive Beliefs Questionnaire, both within OCD and across all groups. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that a compromised ability to generalize from rewarding events may impede adaptive behavior in OCD and in those susceptible to high estimation of threat.
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Reward generalization is impaired in OCD, while punishment generalization is not.
“Impaired generalization of reward but not punishment has also been found in OCD [148].”
From Toward a neurocircuit-based taxonomy to guide treatment of obsessive-compulsive disorder (2021) · cites this paper as [148]
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- Authors
- Rouhani, N., Wimmer, G. E., Schneier, F. R., Fyer, A. J., Shohamy, D., & Simpson, H. B.
- Affiliations
- Princeton University (US)
- Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging (GB)
- New York State Psychiatric Institute (US)
- Department of Psychology; Columbia University; New York New York
- Corresponding author
- Rouhani, Nina
- Venue
- Depression and Anxiety
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2018-11-28
- Volume
- 36
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 121-129
- ISSN
- 1091-4269 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC6945299
- OpenAlex
- W2903544577
- Cited by
- 21
- References
- 45
- Citations by year
- 2025: 2 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 4 · 2021: 4 · 2020: 3 · 2019: 1
- FWCI
- 2.35
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Depression and Anxiety (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- UCL Discovery (University College London) (submittedVersion)
- MPG.PuRe (Max Planck Society) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institute for Mental Health
- New York State Office of Mental Health
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Obsessive-Compulsive Spectrum Disorders
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
- Keywords
- obsessive-compulsive disorder, social anxiety disorder, threat estimation, obsessive beliefs, stimulus-response learning, pathological anxiety, fear generalization
- MeSH terms
- Phobia, Social, Adolescent, Adult, Anxiety, Cognition, Cues, Fear, Female, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, Surveys and Questionnaires, Reward, Case-Control Studies, Young Adult
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