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Abnormalities of internally generated saccades in obsessive–compulsive disorder

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 November 1999

P. MARUFF ,
R. PURCELL ,
P. TYLER ,
C. PANTELIS  and
J. CURRIE
P. MARUFF
Affiliation:
School of Psychology, La Trobe University, Neurophysiology and Neurovisual Research Unit and Cognitive Neuropsychiatry Unit, Mental Health Research Institute of Victoria, Parkville, and Department of Psychiatry and Psychology, University of Melbourne, Victoria; and Brain Research Unit, Drug and Alcohol Services, Westmead Hospital, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
R. PURCELL
Affiliation:
School of Psychology, La Trobe University, Neurophysiology and Neurovisual Research Unit and Cognitive Neuropsychiatry Unit, Mental Health Research Institute of Victoria, Parkville, and Department of Psychiatry and Psychology, University of Melbourne, Victoria; and Brain Research Unit, Drug and Alcohol Services, Westmead Hospital, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
P. TYLER
Affiliation:
School of Psychology, La Trobe University, Neurophysiology and Neurovisual Research Unit and Cognitive Neuropsychiatry Unit, Mental Health Research Institute of Victoria, Parkville, and Department of Psychiatry and Psychology, University of Melbourne, Victoria; and Brain Research Unit, Drug and Alcohol Services, Westmead Hospital, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
C. PANTELIS
Affiliation:
School of Psychology, La Trobe University, Neurophysiology and Neurovisual Research Unit and Cognitive Neuropsychiatry Unit, Mental Health Research Institute of Victoria, Parkville, and Department of Psychiatry and Psychology, University of Melbourne, Victoria; and Brain Research Unit, Drug and Alcohol Services, Westmead Hospital, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
J. CURRIE
Affiliation:
School of Psychology, La Trobe University, Neurophysiology and Neurovisual Research Unit and Cognitive Neuropsychiatry Unit, Mental Health Research Institute of Victoria, Parkville, and Department of Psychiatry and Psychology, University of Melbourne, Victoria; and Brain Research Unit, Drug and Alcohol Services, Westmead Hospital, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
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Abstract

Background. We aimed to utilize tests of saccadic function to investigate whether cognitive abnormalities in obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD) arise from a dysfunction of inhibitory processes or whether they reflect a more general difficulty in guiding behaviour on the basis of an internal representation of task goal.

Methods. Twelve patients with OCD and 12 matched controls performed a visually-guided saccade task, a volitional prosaccade task and an antisaccade task. The latency and gain of saccades was compared between groups for the three saccade tasks. The number of antisaccade errors was also calculated and compared between groups.

Results. There was no difference for antisaccade error rates between the groups. The latency of visually guided saccades did not differ between groups, however the latency of both volitional prosaccades and antisaccades was significantly slower in the patients with OCD than in controls. The difference in latency between volitional prosacades and antisaccades, however, was equal between groups.

Conclusions. These results suggest that patients with OCD have an abnormality in guiding behaviour on the basis of an internal representation of the task goal, rather than a problem with inhibiting reflexive behaviour.

Type
Research Article
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 29 , Issue 6 , November 1999 , pp. 1377 - 1385
Copyright
© 1999 Cambridge University Press

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