A Robot Model of Stress-Induced Compulsive Behavior

Stress is one of the potential mechanisms underlying compulsive behavior in obsessive-compulsive spectrum disorders. In this paper, we present a robot model and experiments investigating the interactions between internally- and externally-induced stress and compulsive behavior. Our results show properties of the model with potential implications for understanding how stress can result in the generation and maintenance of compulsive behaviors, and how response-prevention interventions can affect compulsive responses under different conditions.