Paper: Agam et al. (2014) Aberrant error processing in relation to symptom severity in obsessive-compulsive disorder: A multimodal neuroimaging study.

Question 1

T/F: Increased inhibition mediated by the rACC may lead to a failure to suppress DMN activity following an error, and interfere with redirection of attention to the task-at-hand.

Answer 1

False, Increasing inhibition DOES NOT lead to failure to suppress DMN activity (the subject continued to assess this situation and react).

Question 2

T/F: Findings by Agam and colleagues are consistent with the idea that OCD subjects respond to errors with self-referential thought more than do normal subjects.

Answer 2

True: Yes those with OCD engaged in self-referential thinking more than the controls.

Question 3

An anatomical correlate of abnormal neural adjustment to errors in OCD may be…

Answer 3

INCREASED structural connectivity between the rACC and other brain regions.

Question 4

The primary locus of aberrant neural responses in OCD shown in Agam et al.’s study was the _____ region of the DMN.

Answer 4

rostral anterior cingulate cortex (rACC)

Question 5

The finding of aberrant neural adjustments to errors in OCD by Agam et al. (2014) suggests that OCD may involve

Answer 5

the impairment of adaptive and dynamic responding to errors.

Question 6

Compared to control subjects who showed decreased DMN activation after making an error, OCD subjects showed…

Answer 6

PERSISTENT DMN activation following an error.

Question 7

Agam et al. identified the rACC as the primary locus of aberrant neural adjustments to errors in their OCD subjects, where greater post-error DMN activation was correlated with worse compulsions. Given the function of the rACC, this suggests that OCD subjects have difficulty…

Answer 7

SUPPRESSING emotional evaluative responses to aversive and unexpected outcomes such as errors.

Question 8

Fractional anisotropy (FA) is an index of white matter integrity. In the study by Agam and colleagues, OCD subjects showed…

Answer 8

GREATER FA than controls in the rACC.

Question 9

Among OCD subjects, Agam and colleagues found that greater DMN activation following an error correlated positively with…

Answer 9

the severity of compulsive behaviors.

Question 10

Agam and colleagues (2014) studied OCD by presenting subjects with a visual task and measuring errors, EEG activity, and activity shown by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Findings showed that OCD subjects had…

Answer 10

ABERRANT neural adjustments to errors shown by MRI measures.