Authors: Meryl Rueppel; Kristin A. Mannella; Kate D. Fitzgerald; Hans S. Schroder · Research
How Do Anxiety and OCD Affect Error Processing in the Brain?
This study examined how anxiety and OCD impact behavioral adjustments after making mistakes on a cognitive task.
Source: Rueppel, M., Mannella, K. A., Fitzgerald, K. D., & Schroder, H. S. (2022). Post-error slowing in anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorders. Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience, 22, 610-624. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13415-021-00976-9
What you need to know
- People with anxiety disorders showed more slowing down after making mistakes compared to healthy individuals and those with OCD.
- Those with OCD did not differ from healthy individuals in their post-error slowing.
- Excessive slowing after errors may be a unique characteristic of anxiety disorders rather than OCD.
How do our brains respond to making mistakes?
When we make a mistake, our brains typically trigger a series of responses to help us adjust our behavior and avoid future errors. One common adjustment is called post-error slowing - the tendency to slow down and be more careful on the next trial after making a mistake.
Researchers have been interested in studying post-error slowing in people with anxiety disorders and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) to better understand how these conditions may affect cognitive control and error processing in the brain. Previous studies have found mixed results, with some showing increased error-related brain activity in both anxiety and OCD, but less consistent findings related to behavioral adjustments after errors.
What did this study examine?
This study aimed to directly compare post-error slowing between three groups:
- Children and adolescents with anxiety disorders
- Adolescents and adults with OCD
- Healthy individuals without anxiety or OCD
The researchers had participants complete a computerized task where they had to quickly press a button in response to certain letters, but withhold their response for a specific letter (“X”). This allowed the researchers to measure how quickly people responded after making a mistake compared to after correct responses.
How did anxiety and OCD affect post-error slowing?
The key findings were:
Participants with anxiety disorders showed significantly more post-error slowing compared to both the OCD group and healthy controls. In other words, anxious individuals slowed down more after making mistakes.
Those with OCD did not differ from healthy controls in their level of post-error slowing.
When looking specifically at adolescents (ages 13-17), the anxiety group still showed more slowing after errors compared to both OCD and control groups.
These results suggest that exaggerated post-error slowing may be a unique characteristic of anxiety disorders rather than a shared feature with OCD. This was somewhat surprising, as both anxiety and OCD have been associated with heightened error-related brain activity in previous research.
What might explain the increased post-error slowing in anxiety?
The researchers proposed a few potential explanations for why anxious individuals showed more pronounced slowing after errors:
Increased distractibility: Errors may be particularly salient or distracting for those with anxiety, leading to difficulty refocusing on the task.
Inefficient cognitive control: Anxious individuals may need to exert more effort to regain control after an error, resulting in slower responses.
Heightened physiological arousal: The physical symptoms of anxiety may interfere with quick behavioral adjustments after mistakes.
Importantly, the anxious group also showed lower overall accuracy on the task. This suggests their increased slowing was not necessarily helping them perform better, and may reflect inefficient error processing rather than improved cognitive control.
How might these findings inform treatment?
Understanding how anxiety impacts error processing and behavioral adjustments could help inform cognitive training interventions. For example, anxious individuals may benefit from strategies to:
- Reduce distractibility and improve refocusing after errors
- Enhance efficient cognitive control and flexible behavioral adjustments
- Manage physiological arousal that may interfere with task performance
For those with OCD, the lack of differences in post-error slowing suggests that behavioral adjustments after errors may not be a key area to target in treatment. However, more research is needed to understand how error processing in OCD may differ from anxiety at the neural level.
Limitations and future directions
Some limitations of this study include:
The anxiety group included only children and adolescents, while the OCD group included both adolescents and adults. More research is needed comparing anxiety and OCD across different age groups.
The computerized task used may not fully capture real-world error processing. Studies using more naturalistic tasks could provide additional insights.
The study did not directly measure brain activity, so the neural mechanisms underlying the behavioral differences remain unclear.
Future studies combining behavioral measures with brain imaging techniques could help clarify how anxiety and OCD differentially impact error-related brain circuits and resulting behavioral adjustments. Additionally, examining how post-error slowing relates to symptom severity or specific anxiety subtypes may provide a more nuanced understanding of error processing in anxiety disorders.
Conclusions
- Anxiety disorders were associated with exaggerated post-error slowing compared to both OCD and healthy controls.
- OCD did not differ from healthy individuals in post-error behavioral adjustments.
- Excessive slowing after errors may reflect inefficient cognitive control and increased distractibility in anxiety.
- These findings highlight the importance of considering how different disorders may uniquely impact error processing and cognitive control.