title: Reversal learning as a neuropsychological indicator for the neuropathology of obsessive compulsive disorder? A behavioral study.
abstract: A dysfunction of the fronto-striatal loop has been associated with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Functional imaging studies suggest that reversal learning is affected by deficits in fronto-striatal brain areas and thus should be impaired in patients with OCD. The authors compared patients with OCD and healthy comparison subjects on a reversal learning task. Correlation analyses and group comparisons showing prolonged reaction times of different response parameters are associated with increasing severity of compulsions. The reversal learning task has been shown to be associated with ventral fronto-striatal brain activation by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in healthy comparison subjects. The purpose of this article is to suggest that the reversal learning task can be used as a neuropsychiatric measurement of the ventral fronto-striatal dysfunction in OCD.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health, J5, D-68159 Mannheim, Germany.
authors.forename: Gabriele
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Valerius
authors.forename: Anne
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lumpp
authors.forename: Anne-Katrin
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Kuelz
authors.forename: Tobias
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Freyer
authors.forename: Ulrich
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Voderholzer
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D009771:Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder / Q000503:physiopathology*; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D012193:Reversal Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric