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Review
. 2020 Oct 29;10(11):797.
doi: 10.3390/brainsci10110797.

A Systematic Review of Behavioral, Physiological, and Neurobiological Cognitive Regulation Alterations in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

Sónia Ferreira  1   2 , José Miguel Pêgo  1   2 , Pedro Morgado  1   2   3
Affiliations
Review

A Systematic Review of Behavioral, Physiological, and Neurobiological Cognitive Regulation Alterations in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

Sónia Ferreira et al. Brain Sci. .

Abstract

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is characterized by cognitive regulation deficits. However, the current literature has focused on executive functioning and emotional response impairments in this disorder. Herein, we conducted a systematic review of studies assessing the behavioral, physiological, and neurobiological alterations in cognitive regulation in obsessive-compulsive patients using the PubMed database. Most of the studies included explored behavioral (distress, arousal, and frequency of intrusive thoughts) and neurobiological measures (brain activity and functional connectivity) using affective cognitive regulation paradigms. Our results pointed to the advantageous use of reappraisal and acceptance strategies in contrast to suppression to reduce distress and frequency of intrusive thoughts. Moreover, we observed alterations in frontoparietal network activity during cognitive regulation. Our conclusions are limited by the inclusion of underpowered studies with treated patients. Nonetheless, our findings support the OCD impairments in cognitive regulation of emotion and might help to improve current guidelines for cognitive therapy.

Keywords: OCD; emotion; fMRI; obsessive-compulsive; reappraisal; suppression.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Flow diagram of the literature search (adapted from [22,23]).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Summary of the systematic review of behavioral and neurobiological findings for the obsessive-compulsive versus the healthy control groups. R—right; L—left. The brain maps were created with the BrainNet Viewer using the Automated Anatomical Labelling atlas.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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