2 - (SYM 46) Uncertainty-driven Information Seeking in Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

Background: Uncertainty plays a role in most decision making; the drive to reduce uncertainty leads to information-seeking, or the directed search for new data from the environment in order to form better representations. The ability to represent the value of information is crucial to optimal decision-making (Wilson et al., 2014). Although failures to adapt to uncertainty have been linked to compulsive behavior and neuropsychiatric impairment more generally (Hauser et al., 2016: Morris et al., 2016), there is little research examining uncertainty-driven information-seeking in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine how individuals with OCD integrate information for local, reward-driven goals versus global goals aimed at reducing uncertainty. 

Method: 20 individuals with OCD and 23 healthy controls (HCs) completed a predictive interference task (Archer Task). The task uses a hierarchical structure of local and global uncertainty to test whether participants can (a) form and update representations, (b) use uncertainty to guide action, and (c) abstract and generalize from local to global goals in order to balance information- and reward-seeking. Using a Bayesian framework for computational modeling, we examined differences in uncertainty driven information-seeking in participants with OCD versus HCs. 

Results: Although OCD and HC groups demonstrated comparable local learning, the OCD group demonstrated an impaired ability to integrate the evidence they gathered locally to reduce uncertainty about global structure. Moreover, the OCD group exhibited an increased reaction time and stay length relative to the HCs.

Discussion: Our results point to a specific mechanism that may underlie the compulsive behaviors observed in OCD. Namely, individuals with OCD may reduce local uncertainty (i.e., focus on subgoals) at the expense of goal-directed behavior. That is, the local reduction of uncertainty achieved through compulsive behavior may reduce the ability for individuals with OCD to recognize and achieve a larger, more global goal.