Impaired midfrontal‑motor theta phase synchronization characterizes maladaptive motivational behavior in people with obsessive‑compulsive disorder
4 affiliations
- 1School of Psychology, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, China
- 2Department of Psychiatry, Zhejiang Key Laboratory of Drug Addiction & Brain Health, Affiliated Kangning Hospital of Ningbo University (Ningbo Kangning Hospital), Ningbo, China
- 3School of Psychology, Key Laboratory of Brain Cognition and Emotional Health of Guangdong Higher Education Institutes, and Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Affective and Social Cognitive Science, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, China
- 4Department of Psychology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado, United States of America
Abstract
Obsessive‑compulsive disorder (OCD) is characterized by an insight‑action dissociation, in which people with OCD recognize that their behavior is irrational but still struggle to inhibit habitual responses. This dissociation may be related to abnormally strong motivational biases, reflected in excessive tendencies to approach reward and avoid punishment. We employed a motivational Go/NoGo learning task, combined with computational modeling and electroencephalography (EEG), to investigate how 36 people with OCD and 37 healthy controls (HC) regulate maladaptive biases during motivated action. People with OCD showed stronger Pavlovian bias and lower learning rates. Similar to HC, people with OCD also showed increased midfrontal theta power related to conflict detection and to the generation of a control demand to increase the weighting of instrumental action values during choice, suggesting that they were able to detect the mismatch between their behavior and task goals. However, in OCD, conflict‑related theta enhancement overlapped with the response window, indicating that control signals emerged or arrived too late to effectively influence choice. Midfrontal‑motor theta phase synchrony provided the strongest model evidence for the modulation of maladaptive biases in OCD, yet this pathway showed no significant conflict‑related enhancement and failed to effectively modulate motivational biases under conflict. Taken together, these findings suggest a neural mechanism underlying the insight‑action dissociation in OCD and identify midfrontal‑motor theta phase synchrony as a potential treatment target.
People with obsessive compulsive disorder recognize that their behavior is irrational but still struggle to inhibit habitual responses. This study shows that disrupted midfrontal-motor theta phase synchrony weakens effective control that could lead to abnormally strong motivational biases and excessive tendencies to approach reward and avoid punishment.
Related
- Feedback reliability modulates learning-related dynamics of midfrontal error monitoring
- Longitudinal Changes in Self-Control and Midfrontal Theta During Incarceration and Release.
- Electrophysiological Correlates of Maladaptive Daydreaming: An Exploratory Resting-State EEG Study
- Dynamic endothelial ephrin-B2 and EphB4 expression characterizes hyaloid vessel regression
- Disrupted FAP-satellite cell communication contribute to maladaptive muscle remodeling in older women
BibTeX
@article{pang2026impaired,
title = {{Impaired midfrontal‑motor theta phase synchronization characterizes maladaptive motivational behavior in people with obsessive‑compulsive disorder}},
author = {Yu Pang and Dongsheng Zhou and Ziwen Peng and Wanting Liu and Ruojie Huang and Carol A. Seger and Qi Chen},
journal = {PLOS Biology},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.1371/journal.pbio.3003979},
url = {https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.3003979},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Impaired midfrontal‑motor theta phase synchronization characterizes maladaptive motivational behavior in people with obsessive‑compulsive disorder
AU - Yu Pang
AU - Dongsheng Zhou
AU - Ziwen Peng
AU - Wanting Liu
AU - Ruojie Huang
AU - Carol A. Seger
AU - Qi Chen
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/01
JO - PLOS Biology
DO - 10.1371/journal.pbio.3003979
UR - https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.3003979
AB - Obsessive‑compulsive disorder (OCD) is characterized by an insight‑action dissociation, in which people with OCD recognize that their behavior is irrational but still struggle to inhibit habitual responses. This dissociation may be related to abnormally strong motivational biases, reflected in excessive tendencies to approach reward and avoid punishment. We employed a motivational Go/NoGo learning task, combined with computational modeling and electroencephalography (EEG), to investigate how 36 people with OCD and 37 healthy controls (HC) regulate maladaptive biases during motivated action. People with OCD showed stronger Pavlovian bias and lower learning rates. Similar to HC, people with OCD also showed increased midfrontal theta power related to conflict detection and to the generation of a control demand to increase the weighting of instrumental action values during choice, suggesting that they were able to detect the mismatch between their behavior and task goals. However, in OCD, conflict‑related theta enhancement overlapped with the response window, indicating that control signals emerged or arrived too late to effectively influence choice. Midfrontal‑motor theta phase synchrony provided the strongest model evidence for the modulation of maladaptive biases in OCD, yet this pathway showed no significant conflict‑related enhancement and failed to effectively modulate motivational biases under conflict. Taken together, these findings suggest a neural mechanism underlying the insight‑action dissociation in OCD and identify midfrontal‑motor theta phase synchrony as a potential treatment target. People with obsessive compulsive disorder recognize that their behavior is irrational but still struggle to inhibit habitual responses. This study shows that disrupted midfrontal-motor theta phase synchrony weakens effective control that could lead to abnormally strong motivational biases and excessive tendencies to approach reward and avoid punishment.
SN - 1545-7885
ER -