title: Auditory novelty processing is enhanced in obsessive-compulsive disorder.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Cognitive models propose that anxiety disorders are associated with an attentional bias toward potentially threatening stimuli. In this study, it was analyzed whether patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) show enhanced responses of their event-related brain potentials to novel stimuli, either in a context of potential threat or in a neutral context.
  
  
  METHODS
  In this study, 20 OCD patients and 20 matched healthy control subjects performed a visual recognition task during which irrelevant repeated standard sounds and unitary novel sounds were interspersed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  As expected, OCD patients showed an increase in the novelty-P3 amplitude elicited by unitary novel sounds. However, no effect of emotional context conditions was observed.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  It is suggested that the novelty P3 amplitude increase in OCD patients represents a physiological indicator of an enhanced cortical orienting response implicating stronger involuntary shifts of attention. This characteristic is driven by novelty per se and not moderated by potential threat of upcoming events.
authors: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany. moritz.Ischebeck@psychologie.hu-berlin.de
authors: Moritz
authors: M
authors: Ischebeck
authors: Tanja
authors: T
authors: Endrass
authors: Daniela
authors: D
authors: Simon
authors: Norbert
authors: N
authors: Kathmann
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D001307:Auditory Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D004569:Electroencephalography; D018913:Event-Related Potentials, P300; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009771:Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder / Q000523:psychology*