P300 and delay-discounting in obsessive–compulsive disorder

Previous research showed that dysfunctions of fronto-striatal neural networks are implicated in the pathophysiology of obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD). Accordingly, patients with OCD showed altered performances during decision-making tasks. As P300, evoked by oddball paradigms, is suggested to be related to attentional and cognitive processes and generated in the medial temporal lobe and orbitofrontal and cingulate cortices, it is of special interest in OCD research. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate P300 in OCD and its associations with brain activity during decision-making: P300, evoked by an auditory oddball paradigm, was analysed in 19 OCD patients and 19 healthy controls regarding peak latency, amplitude and source density power in parietal cortex areas by sLORETA. Afterwards, using a fMRI paradigm, Blood–oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) contrast imaging was conducted during a delay-discounting paradigm. We hypothesised differences between groups regarding P300 characteristics and associations with frontal activity during delay-discounting. The P300 did not differ between groups, however, the P300 latency over the P4 electrode correlated negatively with the NEO-FFI score openness to experience in patients with OCD. In healthy controls, P300 source density power correlated with activity in frontal regions when processing rewards, a finding which was absent in OCD patients. To conclude, associations of P300 with frontal brain activation during delay-discounting were found, suggesting a contribution of attentional or context updating processes. Since this association was absent in patients with OCD, the findings could be interpreted as being indeed related to dysfunctions of fronto-striatal neural networks in patients with OCD.