Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
---|---|---|---|---|
10455641 | Brain and Cognition | 2005 | 9 Pages |
Abstract
Neuropsychological and neuroimaging studies implicate attentional difficulties in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), but results are inconsistent due possibly to sample heterogeneity and lack of control of comorbid disorders, such as Tourette's syndrome (TS). Nevertheless, it has been suggested that OCD symptomatology may be a result of overfocused attention at a local level. Therefore, this study aimed to examine the ability of OCD patients (pure and comorbid OCDÂ +Â TS) to process local and global stimuli. Using a local-global paradigm, participants were required to respond to the directed level (local or global) of various stimuli. Results indicate that pure OCD participants were impaired on the global task, whereas comorbid OCDÂ +Â TS participants had difficulty processing local information. Results are consistent with previously reported lateralisation anomalies and suggest that OCD negatively affects the ability to process hierarchically presented stimuli.
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Authors
D. Rankins, J.L. Bradshaw, N. Georgiou-Karistianis,