title: Cerebral laterality, perception of emotion, and treatment response in obsessive-compulsive disorder.
abstract: Patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) had lower right-ear advantages than healthy controls on five different language-related dichotic listening tests of cerebral laterality. This abnormality was more pronounced in patients with more severe illness. Stimulus pairs in one test consisted of one word with a positive emotional valence and one emotionally neutral word. Pairs in another test consisted of one negative and one neutral word. Patients with OCD tended to hear fewer emotion-related words than did healthy controls, a finding also noted in depressed patients. Moreover, OCD patients who responded to treatment with serotonin reuptake inhibitors heard fewer emotion-related words than did nonresponders.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Yale University, New Haven, CT.
authors.forename: B E
authors.initials: BE
authors.lastname: Wexler
authors.forename: W K
authors.initials: WK
authors.lastname: Goodman
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001307:Auditory Perception; D002531:Cerebellum / Q000503:physiopathology*; D004007:Dichotic Listening Tests; D004423:Ear / Q000502:physiology; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009771:Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology