OCD Symptom Severity Relates to Deficits in Action-Outcome Representations during Learning: An Alternative to the Habitual Control Theory

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder is characterized by repetitive behaviors that persist independently of their outcome value, which has been previously proposed as excessive habit-driven responding. Our results support an alternative possibility: that failures in goal-directed control in OCD stem from deficits in learning, separable from overreliance on habit.