OCD has been conceptualized as a disorder arising from dysfunctional beliefs, such as overestimating threats or pathological doubts. Yet, how these beliefs lead to compulsions and obsessions remains unclear. Here, we develop a computational model to examine the specific beliefs that trigger and sustain compulsive behavior in a simple symptom-provoking scenario. Our results demonstrate that a single belief disturbance–a lack of confidence in the effectiveness of one’s preventive (harm-avoiding) actions–can trigger and maintain compulsions and is directly linked to compulsion severity. This distrust can further explain a number of seemingly unrelated phenomena in OCD, including the role of not-just-right feelings, the link to intolerance to uncertainty, perfectionism, and overestimation of threat, and deficits in reversal and state learning. Our simulations shed new light on which underlying beliefs drive compulsive behavior and highlight the important role of perceived ability to exert control for OCD.

Rewards play a crucial role in sculpting all motivated behavior. Traditionally, research on reinforcement learning has centered on how rewards guide learning and decision-making. Here, we examine the origins of rewards themselves. Specifically, it is now well-recognized that the critical reinforcing signal for food is generated internally and subliminally during the process of digestion. As such, a shift in our understanding of rewards as an immediate sensory gratification to a state-dependent evaluation of an action’s impact on vital physiological processes is called for. We integrate this perspective into a revised reinforcement learning framework that recognizes the subliminal nature of biological rewards and their dependency on internal states and goals.

Dr. Petzschner has received a $100,000 prize for her work to commercialize an app to better identify and treat chronic pain. She received the prize from MIT’s Faculty Founder Initiative during its award ceremony on May 2.

MIT launched the Faculty Founder Initiative in 2020 to help increase the number of woman-founded startups. This year, the initiative invited Brown University faculty to participate and pitch their innovative ideas to a group of leaders from academia, biotechnology, and venture capital.  

“Through the Future Founders Initiative, MIT and our funders are investing in amazing women faculty and their labs to provide a path for women’s discoveries and make it all the way to impact the challenging work of company creation,” said MIT President Emerita Susan Hockfield at Thursday’s ceremony.  

Petzschner was recognized as a runner-up in this year’s competition for her work to develop the SOMA app. Petzschner is also the co-director of BRAINSTORM, a program within the Carney Institute’s Center for Computational Brain Science. The BRAINSTORM program supports the application and commercialization of tools from computational brain science to improve mental health and well-being.

“One out of five adults in the United States are currently suffering from chronic pain and many end up in pain for over a decade without getting the appropriate care,” she said. “As pain becomes chronic, it is accompanied by plastic changes at the level of your brain that then lead to the persistence of pain even after the tissue has already healed. “  

“Instead of exclusively focusing on treating the body, we need to focus on the brain as well. The SOMA App is a digital therapeutic that focuses on delivering cognitive practices to chronic pain patients. Exercises, mind body exercises, treatments and psychoeducation are delivered directly to the patient via smartphone,” said Petzschner.  

“Our founding team of neuroscientists, physicians and AI developers is building active partnerships with pharma companies and hospital networks with the long-term goal of creating a platform for physician pain care with the right patient getting the right treatment at the right time.”  

Check out the announcement by MIT:

Check out the announcement by NEMIC:

Every fifth American suffers from Chronic pain – that is pain that persists for more than 3-6 months – and many more are at risk of developing Chronic pain after severe injuries or surgeries or infections such as COVID-19. Once pain has become chronic, it is very hard to treat, resulting in devastating consequences for the individuals, their families and society as a whole including a non-negligible contribution to the opioid crisis in this country.

New neuroscientific research suggests that chronic pain may be a manifestation of plastic changes in brain circuits that are involved in learning and memory. Yet most treatments for pain still focus almost exclusively on the periphery and not the brain. Understanding the role of learning and expectations for pain may be key to predicting who is at risk of transitioning from acute to chronic pain and building better treatments for those that already suffer from persistent pain. 

This is why we spent the last 2 years on developing SOMA.

SOMA is designed to directly support individuals with chronic pain while also gathering the data that will help researchers better predict which patients’ pain will become chronic. The name stems from the Greek word for “body, entire person,” signifying that the app takes a holistic approach to pain. SOMA allows users to track their pain, treatment, and activities—including which efforts affect their pain in positive or negative ways. 

The SOMA App is freely available on the App Store and Google Play Store: