An Inner Look into the Minds and Brains of People with OCD

I have been around multiple people in my life who have OCD (Obsessive compulsive disorder). One of which is a close cousin of mine. While I always thought very highly of him and consider him to be much smarter than me I always new certain things were much harder for him. OCD, like any condition varies in it severity, for some it may make it difficult to go about daily life, while others simply appear to be extremely organized. We often hear people toss it around in conversations when someone is up tight or a "clean freak". This article goes into what is really happening in the minds of those who have been diagnosed with OCD. It presents a study that shows a link between belief and action that is broken to some extent in people with OCD. As a consequence, what they do conflicts with what they know.

The Study was led by graduate student Vaghi and Fabrice Luyckx at the University of Cambridge. Supervised by neuroeconomist and senior author Benedetto De Martino at University College London. They recruited 24 volunteers with OCD and 25 people without the disorder and had them play a video game in which they had to move a target (the “bucket”) around a circle to catch colored dots (“coins”) emitted from the center of the circle. The article itself has the game embedded into the website if you would like to get a more visual look at how the game works. Most of the time the average destination of the coins was more or less the same, varying only slightly, but there was a one-in-eight chance each time that this position would dramatically shift.The groups did not differ as far as how many coins were caught. However those with OCD normally would adjust the bucket to exactly where the last coin had landed. Where as those without OCD would not. 

Where they were able to prove their hypothesis of OCD patients having a disconnect between what they know and their actions in the result regarding the confidence the patient had in their placement. The results between the OCD patients and those without were indistinguishable, suggesting the patients developed as accurate a sense of what was going on as the healthy volunteers. But their actual bucket placements showed they were not using this knowledge to guide their actions. “This study shows that [in OCD] actions are dissociated from thoughts, in a sense,” Vaghi says. “It's very much related to the clinical manifestation, when (those with OCD) say: “I know it’s unlikely I’m going to get contaminated by touching the door handle, but even so, I will wash my hands.’”

My cousin is often referred to as the smartest one in the family. With a perfect ACT score and 4.5 GPA his OCD does not seem to be slowing him down in anyway. However, I have seen him become very frustrated at simple tasks like setting the dinner table. He will pick up and set down the silverware ten times or more and still seem to be unsatisfied. It is very interesting to me the way our brains function. I love the idea that our brain can learn in so many different ways. This article is evidence that our understanding of the brain and its functions is growing. With that new knowledge I believe we will close barriers that exist in our current society between those with mental disorders and those of us who consider ourselves normal. 

GT 

Source: Scientific American: An Inner Look into the Minds and Brains of People with OCD

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/an-inner-look-into-the-minds-and-brains-of-people-with-oc