Looking for Outcomes: The Experience of Control and Sense of Agency in Obsessive-compulsive Behaviors

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) can be conceptualized as a disturbance of control over one’s thoughts and actions, and through them, over external events. Classically, there are two general approaches to the explanation of OCD symptoms: a cognitive account that emphasizes the important role played by dysfunctional beliefs in the exaggerated appraisals of negative outcomes (i.e., harm avoidance) and a sensory phenomena account that highlights the role of impaired action monitoring in inconsistent feelings of dissatisfaction with actual outcomes (i.e., incompleteness). In this chapter, we review the phenomenology of these two OCD manifestations in light of the sense of agency framework. We argue that harm avoidance and incompleteness should be construed as distinct forms of defective outcome processing, leading to distinct impairments of the experience of action

Identification of different subtypes of auditory neuropathy using electrocochleography

Currently, the physiological mechanisms underlying auditory neuropathy are unclear, and there are likely to be multiple sites of lesion. A better understanding of the disruption in individual cases may lead to more effective management and device selection. Frequency-specifi c round-window electrocochleography (ECochG) waveforms were used to assess local hair cell, dendritic, and axonal currents generated within the cochlea in 15 subjects with auditory neuropathy (16 ears). These results were compared with electrically evoked auditory brainstem response (EABR) measured after cochlear implantation. The results of this study demonstrate that predominantly two patterns of ECochG waveforms can be identifi ed: (i) a prolonged latency of the hair cell summating potential (SP) waveform with or without residual CAP activity and (ii) a normal latency SP, typically followed by a dendritic potential (DP). We show that seven of eight subjects with a prolonged SP showed a normal EABR waveform, consistent with a presynaptic lesion, whereas six of seven subjects with a normal latency SP showed poor morphology or absent EABR waveforms, consistent with a postsynaptic lesion. We suggest that a presynaptic and postsynaptic type of auditory neuropathy exist, which may have implications for the fi tting of cochlear implants.16 page(s

Alirocumab in Patients With Polyvascular Disease and Recent Acute Coronary Syndrome ODYSSEY OUTCOMES Trial

Cardiolog