Evaluating overactive performance monitoring as a neurocognitive biomarker of obsessive-compulsive symptomatology in childhood 

Overactive performance monitoring has been hypothesised to be a potential neurocognitive biomarker of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Subclinical OCD symptoms are highly prevalent in children. This thesis aimed to systematically evaluate three key biomarker evaluation criteria, disorder association, predictive validity, and disorder specificity, in healthy children. An adult study was also conducted to provide a contrasting developmental perspective. Overall, the findings suggest that variability in performance monitoring may explain individual differences in anxiety and depressive, but not OCD, symptoms, within healthy adults. However, overactive performance monitoring may not be appropriate when attempting to predict individual differences in OCD symptoms throughout childhood.