The Impact of Emotional Cues on Response Inhibition in Obsessive-Compulsive Symptoms

Abstract

Response inhibition (RI; the ability to inhibit a pre-potent response) has been proposed as a cognitive vulnerability underlying obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). However, extant mixed findings about this purported relationship have raised questions of how robust this relationship might be, and whether other contextual factors may not be fully captured by existing study methodologies. Given rates of comorbid depression and real-world clinical observations of the effects of dysphoric mood on OCD, the present study examined the associations between RI, OCD, and dysphoric mood by utilizing an analogue sample and a cross-sectional, within-subjects design. Participants completed the stop-signal and go/no-go tasks to assess various facets of RI capabilities, and completed self-report measures to assess OCD symptom severity and other related constructs. Mood induction videos were used to elicit desired mood states, including dysphoric mood and a neutral/relaxed mood. Results suggested that RI performance did not vary across mood induction tasks. The most notable finding was the severity of concern for being responsible for harm, injury, and bad luck being a significant predictor of commission errors on the go/no-go task, with more severe symptoms relating to poorer performance. Clinical implications and directions for future research are discussed.