Authors: Riccardo Maria Martoni Giulia Salgari Elisa Galimberti Maria Cristina Cavallini Joseph O’Neill
Publish Date: 2015/05/14
Volume: 265, Issue: 8, Pages: 707-718
Abstract
Visuospatial working memory VSWM is the ability of the brain to transiently store and manipulate visual information VSWM deficiencies have been reported in obsessive–compulsive disorder OCD but not consistently perhaps due to variability in task design and clinical patient factors To explore this variability this study assessed effects of the design factors task difficulty and executive organizational strategy and of the clinical factors gender OCD symptom dimension and duration of illness on VSWM in OCD The CANTAB spatial working memory spatial recognition memory delayed matching to sample and stop signal tasks were administered to 42 adult OCD patients and 42 age and sexmatched healthy controls Aims were to detect a possible VSWM deficit in the OCD sample to evaluate influences of the above task and patient factors to determine the specificity of the deficit to the visuospatial subdomain and to examine effects of sustained attention as potential neurocognitive confound We confirmed previous findings of a VSWM deficit in OCD that was more severe for greater memory load task difficulty and that was affected by task strategy executive function We failed to demonstrate significant deficits in neighboring or confounding neurocognitive subdomains visual object recognition or visual object shortterm memory sustained attention Notably the VSWM deficit was only significant for female patients adding to evidence for sexual dimorphism in OCD Again as in prior work more severe OCD symptoms in the symmetry dimension but no other dimension significantly negatively impacted VSWM Duration of illness had no significant effect on VSWM VSWM deficits in OCD appear more severe with higher task load and may be mediated through poor task strategy Such deficits may present mainly in female patients and in male and female patients with symmetry symptoms
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