State and trait attentional biases and the role of attentional control in obsessive-compulsive disorder: An eye-tracking study using idiosyncratic material

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Barbara Cludius
• Subject Area: Personality Psychology, Clinical and Medical Psychology, Methodology
• Term: since 2021
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 461724773

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a common psychological disorder characterized by obsessions and compulsions, which tend to be idiosyncratic in nature so that the exact content varies widely between individuals. It has been proposed that OCD is related to attentional biases (Salkovskis & McGuire, 2003), which are thought to play a crucial role in the development and maintenance of the disorder. This assumption has stimulated a lot of research in this field. Earlier research on attentional biases in OCD has produced mixed results. However, this research showed a number of limitations. Most of the studies used paradigms with low reliabilities, for example, the dot-probe paradigm. Additionally, studies that have used eye-tracking technology, which usually yields better reliability, have focused on only one subtype of OCD and have used generic OCD-related material rather than idiosyncratic OCD-relevant material. Due to the heterogeneity of the symptoms, it is likely that many pictures were not relevant for individual patients with OCD included in these studies. Furthermore, previous studies lacked appropriate clinical control groups. The current study is planned to extend earlier findings following two main goals. First, it aims to overcome limitations of previous research. Eye-tracking technology will be used to enhance reliability and to assess attentional patterns over a longer period of time. To account for the heterogeneity of symptoms in OCD, this study will include patients with all OCD subtypes in order to analyze attentional patterns to idiosyncratic material. Furthermore, in addition to a healthy control group, it will include a clinical control group of patients with spider phobia to examine the specificity of the attentional biases transdiagnostically. Second, as the relationship between attentional biases and OCD symptoms may be more complex than assessed so far, this study aims at testing possible moderators. Measures of two possible moderators (attentional control and level of distress) will be included: To test the influence of attentional control on attentional biases, attentional control will be measured using subjective and objective measures. To assess whether attentional biases in OCD are longer lasting (trait-level) or depend on the current level of distress (state-level) the attentional patterns will be measured at two time points, with and without a stress induction.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• Co-Investigators: Professor Dr. Benedikt Ehinger; Professor Dr. Thomas Ehring, Ph.D.