Neural markers of interoception in OCD.

ADRIÁN YORIS; LUCAS SEDEÑO; FITTIPALDI, SOL; AGUSTÍN IBAÑEZ

La Habana

Congreso; International Organization of Psychophysiology; 2016

Background: Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) patients typically overmonitor their own behavior, as shown by symptoms of excessive doubt and checking. Although this is well established for the patients? relationship with external stimuli in the environment, no study has explored their monitoring of internal body signals, a process known to be affected in anxiety-related syndromes. Here, we explored this issue through a cardiac interoception task that measures sensing of heartbeats. Our aim was to explore distinctive behavioral and electrophysiological aspects of internal-cue monitoring in OCD, while examining their specificity to this condition. Methods: Participants: The study comprised 15 OCD patients, 15 panic disorder patients, and 25 healthy volunteers. We administered a heartbeat detection (HBD) task (with related interoceptive awareness measures) to three matched groups (OCD patients, panic disorder patients, healthy controls) and recorded ongoing modulations of two task-relevant electrophysiological markers: the heart evoked potential (HEP) and the motor potential (MP).Analysis: Demographic and clinical data were assessed through ANOVAs. We performed an ANCOVA using anxiety scores as covariates for the HBD measures (only significant results surviving covariance are reported). Effect sizes were reported with partial eta squared (ηp2). Point-by-point comparisons along the ERP were made via the Monte Carlo permutation test. In addition, non-a-priori windows were selected to analyze the ERPs. Results: In the HBD, group differences were found in OCD group comparing with controls and panics (F=6.03, p