Checking responses of goal- and sign-trackers are differentially affected by threat in a rodent analog of obsessive-compulsive disorder.

ABSTRACT: In obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), functional behaviors such as checking that a door is locked become dysfunctional, maladaptive, and debilitating. However, it is currently unknown how aversive and appetitive motivations interact to produce functional and dysfunctional behavior in OCD. Here we show a double dissociation in the effects of anxiogenic cues and sensitivity to rewarding stimuli on the propensity to develop functional and dysfunctional checking behavior in a rodent analog of OCD, the observing response task (ORT). While anxiogenic manipulations of perceived threat (presentation of threat-associated contextual cues) and actual threat (punishment of incorrect responding on the ORT) enhanced functional checking, dysfunctional checking was unaffected. In contrast, rats that had

SUBMITTER: Vousden GH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7164513 | biostudies-literature | 2020 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature