The Relationship between Hoarding Symptoms, Intolerance of Uncertainty, and Error-Related Negativity

Individuals who hoard report poor tolerance for uncertainty. They also exhibit error-monitoring abnormalities and increased activation of the anterior cingulate during possession-relevant decision-making, potentially reflecting a context-dependent error sensitivity. Together, these underlying vulnerabilities may lead individuals who hoard to avoid uncertain acquiring and discarding decisions. The current study explored electrophysiological indices of error-monitoring (error-related negativity; ERN) in possession-related and possession-unrelated contexts, and how this related to self-reported intolerance of uncertainty (IU). Undergraduate students (N = 29) completed self-report measures of hoarding symptoms and intolerance of uncertainty, and then engaged in a Go/NoGo task and a novel Discard/NoDiscard task with concurrent EEG measurement. Regression analyses revealed that hoarding symptoms predicted ERN amplitude for possession-related errors but not possession-unrelated errors, and that this relationship was influenced by IU in possession-related contexts. These findings have theoretical implications for understanding vulnerability in hoarding.