OCD makes it harder to learn things are safe

• Autores: Clare Wilson
• Localización: New scientist, ISSN 0262-4079, Nº. 3116, 2017, pág. 10
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • The thoughts and urges that are characteristic of obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) may be caused by an inability to distinguish between safe and risky situations. To find out more about why this happens, Naomi Fineberg of the Hertfordshire Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust in the UK and her team trained 78 people to fear a picture of an angry face. They did this by sometimes giving the volunteers an electric shock when they saw the picture. About half the group had OCD. Brain scans revealed that the people with OCD had less activity in their ventromedial prefrontal cortex, a brain area involved in signaling safety and predicting rewards