Increased error rate and delayed response to negative emotional stimuli in antisaccade task in obsessive-compulsive disorder

Abstract Ample evidence links impaired inhibitory control, attentional distortions, emotional dysregulation, and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). However, it remains unclear what underlies the deficit that triggers the OCD cycle. The present study used an antisaccade paradigm with emotional stimuli to compare eye movement patterns reflecting inhibitory control and attention switching in OCD and healthy control groups. Thirty-two patients with OCD and thirty healthy controls performed the antisaccade task with neutral, positive, and negative visual images. The groups differed significantly in the number of errors to negative stimuli. The latency of correct antisaccades varied between valences in OCD group when negative and neutral stimuli served as target ones. The OCD group showed more errors to negative stimuli than the control group and they also performed antisaccades more slowly to negative and neutral stimuli than positive ones. Other patterns, including mean velocity of correct antisaccades and anticipatory saccades, did not differ between groups. The mean velocity of correct antisaccades was higher for negative and positive stimuli than for neutral stimuli; however, there were more anticipatory saccades for neutral stimuli than for negative and positive stimuli in both groups. The peak velocity parameter did not show any differences either between groups or between valences. The findings support a hypothesis that an attentional bias towards threatening stimuli interferes with inhibitory control in OCD.