Probing the habitual and compulsive-like basis of (dys)functional checking in the Observing Response Task, a rodent analogue relevant to obsessive-compulsive disorder
Luise Pickenhan, Amy L Milton · 2026
Read Probing the habitual and compulsive-like basis of (dys)functional checking in the Observing Response Task, a rodent analogue relevant to obsessive-compulsive disorder by Luise Pickenhan, Amy L Milton (2026) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/pmc-13242449.txt.
Description
Luise Pickenhan and Amy L Milton report a 2026 rat study of compulsive-like checking behavior relevant to obsessive-compulsive disorder. Rats performed a task where a special lever lit a cue showing which reward lever was currently correct. Extra presses on that lever served no purpose and modeled dysfunctional checking.
Rats prone to chasing cues, called sign-trackers, showed more useless checking than other rats. Their checking persisted even when the link between checking and the cue was weakened, suggesting habit-driven behavior. When checking was punished with shocks, most rats stopped, yet a minority of sign-trackers kept going. The authors compare that persistence to severe human cases where checking continues despite bad consequences.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Luise Pickenhan, Amy L Milton |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 52 KB |
| VERSION | 1.0 |
| LICENSE | CC BY 4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |