No disgust recognition deficit in obsessive-compulsive disorder.
BACKGROUND
Patients with basal ganglia abnormalities misclassify facial expressions of disgust as expressions of anger when asked to identify the emotion depicted in photographs of individuals displaying different emotions. Sprengelmeyer, Young, Pundt et al. (1997) reported a similar disgust recognition deficit in patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)--an anxiety disorder associated with basal ganglia abnormality.


METHODS
In the present experiment, we attempted to replicate Sprengelmeyer, Young, Pundt et al.'s (1997) findings.


RESULTS
We failed to replicate Sprengelmeyer, Young, Pundt et al.'s finding of disgust recognition deficits in OCD patients relative to healthy control subjects. One patient with especially severe OCD did, however, exhibit impairment by misclassifying disgust expressions as anger expressions.


CONCLUSIONS
These data do not confirm the presence of disgust recognition deficits in individuals with OCD. In light of the deficits exhibited by one subject with severe OCD, disgust recognition deficits may be confined to an unidentified subset of people with OCD.
Parker
Holly A
HA
Department of Psychology, Harvard University, 33 Kirkland Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.
McNally
Richard J
RJ
Nakayama
Ken
K
Wilhelm
Sabine
S
D000328:Adult; D000339:Affect; D001479:Basal Ganglia / Q000503:physiopathology; D039721:Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders; D005149:Facial Expression; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009771:Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology; D021641:Recognition, Psychology