지연 표본 대응 과제에서 나타나는 젊은 남성 강박장애 환자의 작업기억 결손

Abstract

Objectives : Impaired working memory has been known to play an important role in the pathophysiology of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) with growing evidence. Delayed matching-to-sample task (DMST) is a working memory task which have an advantage in analyzing several different working memory process- es in one task. However, most of the studies have failed to reveal the working memory impairment with the DMST. The aim of this study was to identify whether working memory deficit in OCD can be evaluated with the DMST.

Methods : The participants included 20 OCD patients and 20 healthy volunteers. Working memory was evaluated with the DMST with two different working memory loads. Accuracy of response and mean re- sponse time were measured.

Results : OCD patients showed a significantly longer reaction time and lower accuracy in DMST com- pared to healthy controls in the task with high working memory loads. Moreover, the difference in accuracy showed interaction with the working memory load.

Conclusions : The present results indicate that working memory deficit in patients with OCD can be eval- uated with the DMST. The findings also suggest that previous negative behavioral results using the DMST were from low working memory load of the task. (Anxiety and Mood 2022;18(1):32-37)