Disrupted latent decision processes in medication-free pediatric OCD patients.
Decision-making in Obsessive Compulsive Disorder has typically been investigated in the adult population. Computational approaches have recently started to get integrated into these studies. However, decision-making research in pediatric OCD populations is scarce.



We investigated latent decision processes in 21 medication-free pediatric OCD patients and 23 healthy control participants. We hypothesized that OCD patients would be more cautious and less efficient in evidence accumulation than controls in a two alternative forced choice (2AFC) task.



Pediatric OCD patients were less efficient than controls in accumulating perceptual evidence and showed a tendency to be more cautious. In comparison to post-correct decisions, OCD patients increased decision thresholds after erroneous decisions, whereas healthy controls decreased decision thresholds. These changes were coupled with weaker evidence accumulation after errors in both groups.



The small sample size limited the power of the study.



Our results demonstrate poorer decision-making performance in pediatric OCD patients at the level of latent processes, specifically in terms of evidence accumulation.
Department of Psychology, Koç University, İstanbul, Turkey.
Ceyla
C
Erhan
Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Muş State Hospital, Muş, Turkey.
Gresa Çarkaxhiu
GÇ
Bulut
Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Maltepe University, İstanbul, Turkey.
Sebla
S
Gökçe
Department of Psychology, Koç University, İstanbul, Turkey.
Duru
D
Ozbas
Department of Psychology, Koç University, İstanbul, Turkey.
Esin
E
Turkakin
Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Atatürk University, Erzurum, Turkey.
Onur Burak
OB
Dursun
Department of Child Psychiatry, Marmara University Faculty of Medicine, İstanbul, Turkey; Child Study Center, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA.
Yanki
Y
Yazgan
Department of Psychology, Koç University, İstanbul, Turkey. Electronic address: fbalci@ku.edu.tr.
Fuat
F
Balcı
D000293:Adolescent; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002648:Child; D002755:Choice Behavior; D003657:Decision Making; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009771:Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder / Q000523:psychology*; D012309:Risk-Taking
Children; Decision making; Hierarchical Drift Diffusion Model; Obsessive Compulsive Disorder