Microsaccadic Differences Between Individuals With High And Low Obsessive Tendencies

Research background and purpose:obsessive compulsive disorder（OCD）,also called obsessive compulsive disorder,is a kind of obsessive compulsive disorder with obsessive compulsive symptoms as its main clinical feature.More and more studies have found that the compulsive behavior of compulsive individuals may be due to their excessive dependence on habituation behavior system,which is manifested as the weakening of response inhibition ability and leads to the repetition of their stereotyped behavior,which is also consistent with the explanation of habituation driven model.At present,most research indicators on obsessive-compulsive disorder are physiological indicators such as brain imaging,while most behavioral indicators also rely on subjective indicators such as correct rate of task completion,error rate or attention bias.In this study,micro-saccades,an eye movement indicator that is not easily controlled by individuals,were used to investigate whether there were differences in microsaccades between individuals with high and low obsessive tendencies in the presence of central fixation point stimulation and peripheral stimulation,so as to explore whether there were differences in response inhibition ability between individuals with high and low obsessive tendencies under different visual conditions.Materials and Methods:In this study,black dots were used as stimuli to induce responses of subjects,and subjects were required to always maintain central gaze in different experimental conditions,so as to observe the differences in microsaccades of individuals with high and low obsessive tendencies under these different background conditions.In experiment 1,there are two conditions:there is no central fixation stimulation,and subjects are required to maintain central fixation no matter what conditions,so as to explore whether there are differences in the microsaccades of individuals with high and low obsessive tendencies during the process of maintaining central fixation,and whether there are differences in the microsaccades of individuals with high and low obsessive tendencies under two different background conditions.In experiment 2,the background conditions also included two types:whether peripheral stimulation was present,so as to discuss the differences between individuals with high and low obsessive tendencies in microsaccades rates under the background of peripheral stimulation.Result:1.The results of experiment 1 showed that the conditioned effect was significant(F_（1,55）=29.989,p<0.001,partialη²=0.353),and there were significant differences in the microsaccades of the high and low obsessive tendency groups under the two background conditions,which showed that compared with the central fixation stimulation,Microsaccades were reduced in both groups without central fixation.The group effect was significant(F_（1,55）=12.53,p<0.001,partialη²=0.186).There were differences in microsaccades between the high and low obsessive propensity groups,which showed that the high obsessive propensity group had higher microsaccades than the low obsessive propensity group under the condition of central fixation or no central fixation.The interaction between condition and group was significant(F_（1,55）=5.491,p=0.023,partialη²=0.091).2.The results of experiment 2 showed that the conditioned effect was significant(F_（1,56）=176.86,p<0.001,partialη²=0.76),and there were significant differences in the microsaccades rates of the high and low obsessive tendency groups caused by the two kinds of visual conditions,which showed that compared with the presence of peripheral stimuli,microsaccades rates were higher in both groups in the absence of peripheral stimulation.The group effect was significant(F_（1,56）=7.965,p=0.007,partialη2=0.125).There were differences in microsaccades between the high and low obsessive propensity groups,which showed that the high obsessive propensity group had higher microsaccades than the low obsessive propensity group in the presence or absence of peripheral stimulus.The interaction between condition and group was not significant(F_（1,56）=0.067,p=0.797,partialη²=0.001).Conclusions:1.The experimental results showed that,compared with individuals with low compulsion tendency,individuals with high compulsion tendency showed higher microsaccus rate under the condition of central fixation and peripheral stimulation,which reflects the weakened inhibition ability of individuals with high compulsion tendency,which may make individuals with high compulsion tendency more likely to form habitual behaviors.