Allocation of attention in obsessional disorder.
It is suggested that obsessional disorders may be usefully described as a breakdown of cognitive control processes. Groups of obsessional, anxious and normal subjects were therefore tested on a task involving varying levels of attention, performed under normal and stressed conditions. Results provide some support for the hypothesis of attention failure under stress, but do not confirm that this is due to an underlying difference in the way obsessionals allocate attention.
D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention; D004193:Discrimination Learning; D005260:Female; D005556:Form Perception; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011939:Mental Recall; D009771:Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder / Q000523:psychology*; D010698:Phobic Disorders / Q000523:psychology; D011930:Reaction Time