Neuropsychological research yields
diverging results regarding Working Memory (WM)
in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD). In the
present study an attempt was made to focus in the
differences between OCD patients and healthy
controls, as reflected by the P600 component of ERP
signals, as well to search deeper into the P600 signals
by extracting new features and, by employing
powerful classification procedures, to develop a
pattern recognition system for discriminating OCD
patients from controls. Eighteen patients with OCD
symptomatology and twenty age and sex matched
normal controls were examined. All subjects were
evaluated by a computerized version of the digit
span subtest of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence
Scale. EEG activity was recorded from 15 scalp
electrodes (leads). From the P600 component of each
signal nineteen waveform-features were calculated.
The Probabilistic Neural Network (PNN) classifier
was developed and it was fed with features from all
leads. Highest single-lead precision (86.8%) was
found at the Fp2 and C6 leads. When leads were
grouped into anatomical regions, highest accuracies
were achieved at the temporo-central (86.8%) region
(C5,C6). These findings may be indicative that OCD
patients present deficits related to WM mechanisms,
corresponding to prefrontal, central, and temporocentral
regions, as reflected by the P600 component.