VISUAL-ATTENTION IN OBSESSIVE-COMPULSIVE DISORDER

Performance on neuropsychological tasks was compared in 15 subjects wi th obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and 15 age- and sex-matched psy chiatrically screened control subjects. The tasks chosen are known fro m studies in other patient groups to demonstrate lateralized abnormali ties of visual and limited capacity attentional impairment. The Posner task performance of the OCD group demonstrated decreased inhibition o f return for left visual field targets and no inhibition of return for right visual field targets. The OCD group's spatial-linguistic confli ct task responses were significantly slowed in the conflict condition, as predicted. The results are discussed in relation to the phenomenol ogy of OCD and prior neuropsychological evaluations.