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Sensory Habituation as a Shared Mechanism for Sensory Over-Responsivity and Obsessive–Compulsive Symptoms

BACKGROUND: Some individuals who suffer from obsessive–compulsive (OC) disorder (OCD), report disturbing sensory preoccupations. The inability to stop obsessing over stimuli resonates with a difficulty in sensory habituation. Impaired sensory habituation, to a degree that clearly dysregulates respon...

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Autores principales: Podoly, Tamar Y., Ben-Sasson, Ayelet
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7146075/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32317944
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnint.2020.00017
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author Podoly, Tamar Y.
Ben-Sasson, Ayelet
author_facet Podoly, Tamar Y.
Ben-Sasson, Ayelet
author_sort Podoly, Tamar Y.
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Some individuals who suffer from obsessive–compulsive (OC) disorder (OCD), report disturbing sensory preoccupations. The inability to stop obsessing over stimuli resonates with a difficulty in sensory habituation. Impaired sensory habituation, to a degree that clearly dysregulates response to sensory stimuli, and impairs participation in everyday activities, can be part of a disorder known as sensory over-responsivity (SOR). Although previous studies indicated a correlation between OCD and SOR, physiological experiments show that individuals with OCD are not more sensitive to sensory stimuli than controls. In the current study, we (1) validated a sensory habituation psycho-physiological protocol and (2) tested whether a “slow to habituate” mechanism can explain the occurrence of elevated SOR and OC symptoms. METHODS: We designed a protocol to test auditory sensory habituation through electrodermal activity (EDA) recording. The protocol included two randomly ordered aversive and neutral sound conditions; each set of six everyday life sounds was presented as a continuous stimulus. During the presentation of sounds, EDA was measured and participants could press a button to shorten the stimuli. Participants also completed sensory and OC symptom questionnaires. Participants included 100 typically developing adults that were divided into high versus low OC symptom groups. Mixed models analysis was used throughout to meet the need for capturing the temporal nature of habituation. RESULTS: Distinct physiological indices were computed to measure sensitivity versus habituation. Habituation was slower in the aversive versus neutral condition. Sensitivity was higher for the aversive stimuli. Self-report of sensory habituation and sensitivity partially correlated with the physiological habituation indices. A comparison of the physiological pattern between those with high versus low OC symptoms revealed significant differences in the habituation and sensitivity indices, across conditions. CONCLUSION: The interplay between SOR and OC symptoms can be explained by a “slow to habituate” mechanism. Identifying behavioral and physiological markers of sensory problems in OCD is important for assessment, intervention and the discovery of underlying mechanisms.
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spelling pubmed-71460752020-04-21 Sensory Habituation as a Shared Mechanism for Sensory Over-Responsivity and Obsessive–Compulsive Symptoms Podoly, Tamar Y. Ben-Sasson, Ayelet Front Integr Neurosci Neuroscience BACKGROUND: Some individuals who suffer from obsessive–compulsive (OC) disorder (OCD), report disturbing sensory preoccupations. The inability to stop obsessing over stimuli resonates with a difficulty in sensory habituation. Impaired sensory habituation, to a degree that clearly dysregulates response to sensory stimuli, and impairs participation in everyday activities, can be part of a disorder known as sensory over-responsivity (SOR). Although previous studies indicated a correlation between OCD and SOR, physiological experiments show that individuals with OCD are not more sensitive to sensory stimuli than controls. In the current study, we (1) validated a sensory habituation psycho-physiological protocol and (2) tested whether a “slow to habituate” mechanism can explain the occurrence of elevated SOR and OC symptoms. METHODS: We designed a protocol to test auditory sensory habituation through electrodermal activity (EDA) recording. The protocol included two randomly ordered aversive and neutral sound conditions; each set of six everyday life sounds was presented as a continuous stimulus. During the presentation of sounds, EDA was measured and participants could press a button to shorten the stimuli. Participants also completed sensory and OC symptom questionnaires. Participants included 100 typically developing adults that were divided into high versus low OC symptom groups. Mixed models analysis was used throughout to meet the need for capturing the temporal nature of habituation. RESULTS: Distinct physiological indices were computed to measure sensitivity versus habituation. Habituation was slower in the aversive versus neutral condition. Sensitivity was higher for the aversive stimuli. Self-report of sensory habituation and sensitivity partially correlated with the physiological habituation indices. A comparison of the physiological pattern between those with high versus low OC symptoms revealed significant differences in the habituation and sensitivity indices, across conditions. CONCLUSION: The interplay between SOR and OC symptoms can be explained by a “slow to habituate” mechanism. Identifying behavioral and physiological markers of sensory problems in OCD is important for assessment, intervention and the discovery of underlying mechanisms. Frontiers Media S.A. 2020-04-03 /pmc/articles/PMC7146075/ /pubmed/32317944 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnint.2020.00017 Text en Copyright © 2020 Podoly and Ben-Sasson. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Neuroscience
Podoly, Tamar Y.
Ben-Sasson, Ayelet
Sensory Habituation as a Shared Mechanism for Sensory Over-Responsivity and Obsessive–Compulsive Symptoms
title Sensory Habituation as a Shared Mechanism for Sensory Over-Responsivity and Obsessive–Compulsive Symptoms
title_full Sensory Habituation as a Shared Mechanism for Sensory Over-Responsivity and Obsessive–Compulsive Symptoms
title_fullStr Sensory Habituation as a Shared Mechanism for Sensory Over-Responsivity and Obsessive–Compulsive Symptoms
title_full_unstemmed Sensory Habituation as a Shared Mechanism for Sensory Over-Responsivity and Obsessive–Compulsive Symptoms
title_short Sensory Habituation as a Shared Mechanism for Sensory Over-Responsivity and Obsessive–Compulsive Symptoms
title_sort sensory habituation as a shared mechanism for sensory over-responsivity and obsessive–compulsive symptoms
topic Neuroscience
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7146075/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32317944
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnint.2020.00017
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