McCain, K. J. | bioRxiv Science

bioRxiv2026

Heightened Distraction under Competition in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

The present study examine the extent to which attentional resources are allocated toward distracting affective and disorder-relevant pictures under task-relevant competition in participants with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD; N = 33) and controls (N = 31). Competition between cues was examined using a foreground task where participants detected coherent motion in a flickering random dot kinematogram (RDK) overlaid on pictures ranging in emotional content (pleasant, neutral, unpleasant, and OCD-evoking pictures). Steady-state visual evoked potentials (ssVEPs) were measured in response to the flickering RDK and served as an index of visuocortical engagement with task-relevant cues. Data were also fitted to the distraction under competition model (DUC), a computational framework of attention selection. Group differences emerged with stronger visuocortical distraction (attenuated task engagement) in the OCD group, driven largely by the unpleasant pictures, followed by the OCD-evoking and pleasant pictures. Furthermore, the DUC model fit well in both groups and supported the results of the univariate analysis, demonstrating the magnitude of the visuocortical distraction observed in response to the unpleasant pictures, and the presence of substantial distraction in response to the OCD-evoking pictures in the OCD group. The present findings provide visuocortical evidence of heightened distraction in response to unpleasant and OCD-evoking pictures under task-relevant competition in OCD.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2025

Isolating the Contribution of the Koniocellular Visual Pathway in Aversive Learning in Human Visual Cortex

The present study examined the contribution of the koniocellular retino-geniculate visual pathway to the electrocortical amplification of threat cues in human visual cortex using an aversive conditioning task. The task involved tritan stimuli, which are thought to convey visual information through S-cone signals that project to regions along the koniocellular pathway (tritan condition) and achromatic stimuli that preferentially activate luminance channels (luminance condition). Steady-state visual evoked potential (ssVEPs) responses to the conditioned threat (CS+) and safety cues (CS-) in each condition were analyzed using a non-parametric Bayesian bootstrapped approach. Results showed that the tritan and luminance conditions exhibited greater ssVEP responses to the CS+ compared to the CS-stimuli in occipital sensors early into the trial (0 ms - 1000 ms; logBF10 > 2, decisive support). In addition to these early conditioning effects, a late conditioning effect was observed (1500 ms - 2500 ms) in the tritan condition that emerged in bilateral anterior sensors (logBF10 > 2). To further examine the tritan contribution to aversive learning, transitive Bayes factors were computed to compare the magnitude of the conditioning effects across conditions. Transitive Bayes factors showed that the early conditioning effect was larger in the luminance condition compared to the tritan condition (logBF10 > 2). Furthermore, the late conditioning effect remained larger in the tritan condition compared to the luminance condition (logBF10 > 2). Our findings suggest that both the koniocellular visual pathway and luminance channels play a role in the electrocortical amplification of threat signals in human visual cortex.

neuroscience↗