201
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Stuke H, Kress E, Weilnhammer VA, Sterzer P, Schmack K. Overly Strong Priors for Socially Meaningful Visual Signals Are Linked to Psychosis Proneness in Healthy Individuals. Front Psychol 2021; 12:583637. [PMID: 33897518 PMCID: PMC8061414 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.583637] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/21/2020] [Accepted: 03/11/2021] [Indexed: 12/11/2022] Open
Abstract
According to the predictive coding theory of psychosis, hallucinations and delusions are explained by an overweighing of high-level prior expectations relative to sensory information that leads to false perceptions of meaningful signals. However, it is currently unclear whether the hypothesized overweighing of priors (1) represents a pervasive alteration that extends to the visual modality and (2) takes already effect at early automatic processing stages. Here, we addressed these questions by studying visual perception of socially meaningful stimuli in healthy individuals with varying degrees of psychosis proneness (n = 39). In a first task, we quantified participants' prior for detecting faces in visual noise using a Bayesian decision model. In a second task, we measured participants' prior for detecting direct gaze stimuli that were rendered invisible by continuous flash suppression. We found that the prior for detecting faces in noise correlated with hallucination proneness (r = 0.50, p = 0.001, Bayes factor 1/20.1) as well as delusion proneness (r = 0.46, p = 0.003, BF 1/9.4). The prior for detecting invisible direct gaze was significantly associated with hallucination proneness (r = 0.43, p = 0.009, BF 1/3.8) but not conclusively with delusion proneness (r = 0.30, p = 0.079, BF 1.7). Our results provide evidence for the idea that overly strong high-level priors for automatically detecting socially meaningful stimuli might constitute a processing alteration in psychosis.
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Affiliation(s)
- Heiner Stuke
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, Germany
| | - Elisabeth Kress
- Bernstein Center of Computational Neuroscience, Berlin, Germany
| | | | - Philipp Sterzer
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, Germany
- Bernstein Center of Computational Neuroscience, Berlin, Germany
| | - Katharina Schmack
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, Germany
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202
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Born RT, Bencomo GM. Illusions, Delusions, and Your Backwards Bayesian Brain: A Biased Visual Perspective. BRAIN, BEHAVIOR AND EVOLUTION 2021; 95:272-285. [PMID: 33784667 PMCID: PMC8238803 DOI: 10.1159/000514859] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/22/2020] [Accepted: 01/27/2021] [Indexed: 12/29/2022]
Abstract
The retinal image is insufficient for determining what is "out there," because many different real-world geometries could produce any given retinal image. Thus, the visual system must infer which external cause is most likely, given both the sensory data and prior knowledge that is either innate or learned via interactions with the environment. We will describe a general framework of "hierarchical Bayesian inference" that we and others have used to explore the role of cortico-cortical feedback in the visual system, and we will further argue that this approach to "seeing" makes our visual systems prone to perceptual errors in a variety of different ways. In this deliberately provocative and biased perspective, we argue that the neuromodulator, dopamine, may be a crucial link between neural circuits performing Bayesian inference and the perceptual idiosyncrasies of people with schizophrenia.
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Affiliation(s)
- Richard T Born
- Department of Neurobiology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Gianluca M Bencomo
- Department of Computer Science, Whittier College, Whittier, California, USA
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203
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Feyaerts J, Henriksen MG, Vanheule S, Myin-Germeys I, Sass LA. Delusions beyond beliefs: a critical overview of diagnostic, aetiological, and therapeutic schizophrenia research from a clinical-phenomenological perspective. Lancet Psychiatry 2021; 8:237-249. [PMID: 33485408 DOI: 10.1016/s2215-0366(20)30460-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 49] [Impact Index Per Article: 16.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/30/2020] [Revised: 09/27/2020] [Accepted: 09/29/2020] [Indexed: 12/13/2022]
Abstract
Delusions are commonly conceived as false beliefs that are held with certainty and which cannot be corrected. This conception of delusion has been influential throughout the history of psychiatry and continues to inform how delusions are approached in clinical practice and in contemporary schizophrenia research. It is reflected in the full psychosis continuum model, guides psychological and neurocognitive accounts of the formation and maintenance of delusions, and it substantially determines how delusions are approached in cognitive-behavioural treatment. In this Review, we draw on a clinical-phenomenological framework to offer an alternative account of delusion that incorporates the experiential dimension of delusion, emphasising how specific alterations to self-consciousness and reality experience underlie delusions that are considered characteristic of schizophrenia. Against that backdrop, we critically reconsider the current research areas, highlighting empirical and conceptual issues in contemporary delusion research, which appear to largely derive from an insufficient consideration of the experiential dimension of delusions. Finally, we suggest how the alternative phenomenological approach towards delusion could offer new ways to advance current research and clinical practice.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jasper Feyaerts
- Department of Psychoanalysis and Clinical Consulting, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium; Center for Contextual Psychiatry, Department of Neuroscience, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.
| | - Mads G Henriksen
- Center for Subjectivity Research, Faculty of Humanities, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark; Mental Health Center Amager, Copenhagen, Denmark; Mental Health Center Glostrup, Brøndbyvester, Denmark
| | - Stijn Vanheule
- Department of Psychoanalysis and Clinical Consulting, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
| | - Inez Myin-Germeys
- Center for Contextual Psychiatry, Department of Neuroscience, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
| | - Louis A Sass
- Department of Clinical Psychology, Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, USA
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204
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Wilson P, Humpston C, Nathan R. Innovations in the psychopathology of schizophrenia: a primer for busy clinicians. BJPSYCH ADVANCES 2021. [DOI: 10.1192/bja.2021.3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/23/2022]
Abstract
SUMMARYSignificant developments in schizophrenia psychopathology are ready to be incorporated into clinical practice. These advances allow a way forward through the well-described challenges experienced with current diagnostic and psychopathological frameworks. This article discusses approaches that will enable clinicians to access a wider and richer spectrum of patient experience; describes process-based models of schizophrenia in the domains of both the brain and the mind; and considers how different levels of analysis might be linked via the predictive processing framework. Multiple levels of analysis provide different targets for varying modalities of treatment – dopamine blockade at the molecular level, psychological therapy at the level of the mind, and social interventions at the personal level. Psychiatry needs to align itself closer to neuroscientific research. It should move from a symptom-based understanding to a model based on process. That is – after having asked about a patient's symptoms and experience clinicians need to introduce steps involving a consideration of what might be the brain and mind processes underlying the experience.
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205
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Croft J, Martin D, Madley-Dowd P, Strelchuk D, Davies J, Heron J, Teufel C, Zammit S. Childhood trauma and cognitive biases associated with psychosis: A systematic review and meta-analysis. PLoS One 2021; 16:e0246948. [PMID: 33630859 PMCID: PMC7906349 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0246948] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/02/2020] [Accepted: 01/28/2021] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Childhood trauma is associated with an increased risk of psychosis, but the mechanisms that mediate this relationship are unknown. Exposure to trauma has been hypothesised to lead to cognitive biases that might have causal effects on psychotic symptoms. The literature on whether childhood trauma is associated with psychosis-related cognitive biases has not been comprehensively reviewed. A systematic review and meta-analysis or narrative synthesis of studies examining the association between childhood trauma and the following biases: external locus of control (LOC), external attribution, probabilistic reasoning, source monitoring, top-down processing, and bias against disconfirmatory evidence. Studies were assessed for quality, and sources of heterogeneity were explored. We included 25 studies from 3,465 studies identified. Individuals exposed to childhood trauma reported a more external LOC (14 studies: SMD Median = 0.40, Interquartile range 0.07 to 0.52), consistent with a narrative synthesis of 11 other studies of LOC. There was substantial heterogeneity in the meta-analysis (I2 = 93%) not explained by study characteristics examined. Narrative syntheses for other biases showed weaker, or no evidence of association with trauma. The quality of included studies was generally low. Our review provides some evidence of an association between childhood trauma and a more external LOC, but not with the other biases examined. The low quality and paucity of studies for most of the cognitive biases examined highlights the need for more rigorous studies to determine which biases occur after trauma, and whether they mediate an effect of childhood trauma on psychosis.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jazz Croft
- Centre for Academic Mental Health, Population Health Sciences, Bristol Medical School, University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom
| | - David Martin
- Centre for Academic Mental Health, Population Health Sciences, Bristol Medical School, University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom
| | - Paul Madley-Dowd
- Centre for Academic Mental Health, Population Health Sciences, Bristol Medical School, University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom
| | - Daniela Strelchuk
- Centre for Academic Mental Health, Population Health Sciences, Bristol Medical School, University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom
| | - Jonathan Davies
- Centre for Academic Mental Health, Population Health Sciences, Bristol Medical School, University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom
| | - Jon Heron
- Centre for Academic Mental Health, Population Health Sciences, Bristol Medical School, University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom
| | - Christoph Teufel
- Cardiff University Brain Research Imaging Centre, School of Psychology, University of Cardiff, Cardiff, United Kingdom
| | - Stanley Zammit
- Centre for Academic Mental Health, Population Health Sciences, Bristol Medical School, University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom
- Division of Psychological Medicine and Clinical Neurosciences, Medical Research Council Centre for Neuropsychiatric Genetics and Genomics, Cardiff University School of Medicine, Cardiff, United Kingdom
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206
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Rashidi M, Schmitgen MM, Weisbrod M, Schnell K, Wolf RC, Whittington MA. Right parietotemporal activity predicts sense of agency under uncertain delays of sensory outcomes. J Neurophysiol 2021; 125:903-914. [PMID: 33566735 DOI: 10.1152/jn.00640.2020] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/22/2022] Open
Abstract
Sense of agency is the experience of control over one's own action and its consequent outcomes. The perceived time between a motor action and its consequent sensory outcomes (e.g., a flash of light) is shorter for a voluntary than involuntary action, a phenomenon known as intentional binding, which has been used extensively as an implicit measure of sense of agency. We developed a novel task in which participants had to respond whether a flash appeared immediately or with a delay relative to their voluntary action. We found that under high, but not low, uncertainty about the perceived time between voluntary finger movement and a subsequent flash of light, a prediction signal was generated in the right inferior parietal lobule prior to motor action. This prediction signal was linked to the emergence of a sudden insight solution (colloquially referred to as "Aha!" moment) in the right superior temporal gyrus prior to response. Single-trial event-related potential analysis revealed a reliable correlation between amplitudes of premotor and preresponse activities. The results suggest the existence of a predictive mechanism under high uncertainty about the timing of the sensory consequences of a voluntary motor action. The results are in line with the optimal cue integration theory of sense of agency, which states that both predictive and postdictive agency cues are crucial for the formation of sense of agency and the weight of each type of cue (predictive or postdictive) depends on their availability and reliability.NEW & NOTEWORTHY According to the optimal cue integration theory, the formation of sense of agency relies on both predictive and postdictive agency cues and how they are weighted based on their availability and reliability. Using a novel paradigm, we show for the first time a possible existence of a prediction signal prior to voluntary movement, which appears when postdictive agency cues (i.e., the judgment of the time between voluntary movement and a subsequent flash) are not reliable.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mahmoud Rashidi
- Department of General Psychiatry, Heidelberg University, Heidelberg, Germany.,Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg University, Mannheim, Germany
| | | | - Matthias Weisbrod
- Department of General Psychiatry, Heidelberg University, Heidelberg, Germany.,Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, SRH Hospital Karlsbad-Langensteinbach, Karlsbad, Germany
| | - Knut Schnell
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Medical Centre Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany.,Asklepios Centre for Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Göttingen, Germany
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207
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Ho HT, Burr DC, Alais D, Morrone MC. Propagation and update of auditory perceptual priors through alpha and theta rhythms. Eur J Neurosci 2021; 55:3083-3099. [PMID: 33559266 PMCID: PMC9543013 DOI: 10.1111/ejn.15141] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/11/2020] [Revised: 01/05/2021] [Accepted: 01/28/2021] [Indexed: 12/15/2022]
Abstract
To maintain a continuous and coherent percept over time, the brain makes use of past sensory information to anticipate forthcoming stimuli. We recently showed that auditory experience of the immediate past is propagated through ear-specific reverberations, manifested as rhythmic fluctuations of decision bias at alpha frequencies. Here, we apply the same time-resolved behavioural method to investigate how perceptual performance changes over time under conditions of stimulus expectation and to examine the effect of unexpected events on behaviour. As in our previous study, participants were required to discriminate the ear-of-origin of a brief monaural pure tone embedded in uncorrelated dichotic white noise. We manipulated stimulus expectation by increasing the target probability in one ear to 80%. Consistent with our earlier findings, performance did not remain constant across trials, but varied rhythmically with delay from noise onset. Specifically, decision bias showed a similar oscillation at ~9 Hz, which depended on ear congruency between successive targets. This suggests rhythmic communication of auditory perceptual history occurs early and is not readily influenced by top-down expectations. In addition, we report a novel observation specific to infrequent, unexpected stimuli that gave rise to oscillations in accuracy at ~7.6 Hz one trial after the target occurred in the non-anticipated ear. This new behavioural oscillation may reflect a mechanism for updating the sensory representation once a prediction error has been detected.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hao Tam Ho
- School of Psychology, University of Sydney, Camperdown, NSW, Australia.,Department of Neuroscience, Psychology, Pharmacology, and Child Health, University of Florence, Florence, Italy
| | - David C Burr
- School of Psychology, University of Sydney, Camperdown, NSW, Australia.,Department of Neuroscience, Psychology, Pharmacology, and Child Health, University of Florence, Florence, Italy.,Institute of Neuroscience, Pisa, Italy
| | - David Alais
- School of Psychology, University of Sydney, Camperdown, NSW, Australia
| | - Maria Concetta Morrone
- Department of Translational Research on New Technologies in Medicine and Surgery, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy
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208
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Zopf R, Boulton K, Langdon R, Rich AN. Perception of visual-tactile asynchrony, bodily perceptual aberrations, and bodily illusions in schizophrenia. Schizophr Res 2021; 228:534-540. [PMID: 33234423 DOI: 10.1016/j.schres.2020.11.038] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/17/2020] [Revised: 10/12/2020] [Accepted: 11/16/2020] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
Abstract
Body perception can be altered in individuals with schizophrenia resulting in experiences of undefined boundaries, loss of ownership, and size changes. These individuals may also be more susceptible to the rubber hand illusion (RHI: an illusion of body perception that can also be induced in neurotypical populations), but the findings are mixed. Furthermore, the perception of multisensory timing, which is thought to be fundamental for body perception, is altered in schizophrenia. We tested whether altered perception of the temporal relationship between visual and tactile signals in schizophrenia predicts self-reported perceptual aberrations and RHI susceptibility. We found that the sensitivity to detect temporal asynchronies is reduced in schizophrenia and this is a significant predictor for bodily perceptual symptoms. In contrast, we found no evidence for a direct relationship between asynchrony detection sensitivity and RHI susceptibility. Instead, our findings suggest that experiencing more bodily perceptual symptoms increases the likelihood of endorsing unusual bodily experiences, resulting in higher RHI self-ratings but not higher proprioceptive drift scores. Our findings provide new insight into factors that may underlie the report of unusual body perceptions in schizophrenia.
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Affiliation(s)
- Regine Zopf
- Department of Cognitive Science, Faculty of Medical, Health & Human Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia; Perception in Action Research Centre, Faculty of Medical, Health & Human Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia; Body Image and Ingestion Group, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia.
| | - Kelsie Boulton
- Department of Psychology, Faculty of Medical, Health & Human Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia
| | - Robyn Langdon
- Department of Cognitive Science, Faculty of Medical, Health & Human Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia
| | - Anina N Rich
- Department of Cognitive Science, Faculty of Medical, Health & Human Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia; Perception in Action Research Centre, Faculty of Medical, Health & Human Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia; Centre for Elite Performance, Training & Expertise, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia
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209
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Abstract
A large body of work has linked dopaminergic signaling to learning and reward processing. It stresses the role of dopamine in reward prediction error signaling, a key neural signal that allows us to learn from past experiences, and that facilitates optimal choice behavior. Latterly, it has become clear that dopamine does not merely code prediction error size but also signals the difference between the expected value of rewards, and the value of rewards actually received, which is obtained through the integration of reward attributes such as the type, amount, probability and delay. More recent work has posited a role of dopamine in learning beyond rewards. These theories suggest that dopamine codes absolute or unsigned prediction errors, playing a key role in how the brain models associative regularities within its environment, while incorporating critical information about the reliability of those regularities. Work is emerging supporting this perspective and, it has inspired theoretical models of how certain forms of mental pathology may emerge in relation to dopamine function. Such pathology is frequently related to disturbed inferences leading to altered internal models of the environment. Thus, it is critical to understand the role of dopamine in error-related learning and inference.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kelly M. J. Diederen
- Department of Psychosis Studies,
Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King’s College London,
London, UK
| | - Paul C. Fletcher
- Department of Psychiatry,
University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
- Cambridgeshire and Peterborough
NHS Foundation Trust, Cambridge, UK
- Wellcome Trust MRC Institute of
Metabolic Science, University of Cambridge, Cambridge Biomedical Campus,
Cambridge, UK
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210
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Chan SKW, Liu T, Wong AOY, Wong GHY, Hsiao J, Hui CLM, Chang WC, Lee EHM, Chen EYH. Self-referential gaze perception of patients with schizophrenia and its relationship with symptomatology and cognitive functions. Schizophr Res 2021; 228:288-294. [PMID: 33493777 DOI: 10.1016/j.schres.2020.12.034] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/22/2020] [Revised: 09/19/2020] [Accepted: 12/26/2020] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
Self-referential gaze perception (SRGP)-the perception that others' gaze is towards oneself-is a core experience in patients with schizophrenia, and may be related to common delusional themes such as delusions of reference. Studies exploring SRGP bias in schizophrenia are limited and results have been inconsistent, particularly regarding its relationship with symptomatology and cognition. Seventy-five patients with schizophrenia-spectrum disorders (25 with high level of reference delusion, 25 with low reference delusion and 25 in clinical remission) and 25 matched healthy controls were compared in a gaze perception task to judge whether averted gaze with varied ambiguity was directed at them. All subjects were assessed with delusion and reference ideations and cognitive functions. Psychotic symptoms were assessed in patients. Gaze perception analysis adopted both behavioural and psychophysical approaches. Group differences and predictors of SRGP in ambiguous and unambiguous conditions were investigated. Both groups of symptomatic patients displayed higher ambiguous SRGP rate, and the group with high reference delusions showed more unambiguous SRGP bias. Cognitive functions were negatively associated with SRGP rate while positive and negative symptoms were positively associated. Cognitive function was the only significant predictor for ambiguous-SRGP rate. Patients with psychotic symptoms have hypermentalization of gaze perception as towards oneself, whereas patients with delusions of reference have more profound bias in gaze perception. General cognition is implicated in SRGP rate. Future studies could investigate interventions with targeted psychopathological profiles by improving non-social cognitive functions to test the hypothesis that cognitive functioning is related to SRGP bias and delusional beliefs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sherry Kit Wa Chan
- Department of Psychiatry, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR; The State Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR.
| | - Tianyin Liu
- Department of Social Work and Social Administration, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR
| | | | - Gloria Hoi Yan Wong
- Department of Social Work and Social Administration, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR
| | - Janet Hsiao
- The State Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR; Department of Psychology, HKU, Hong Kong SAR
| | | | - Wing Chung Chang
- Department of Psychiatry, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR; The State Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR
| | - Edwin Ho Ming Lee
- Department of Psychiatry, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR
| | - Eric Yu Hai Chen
- Department of Psychiatry, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR; The State Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR
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211
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Jalal B. "Men Fear Most What They Cannot See." sleep paralysis "Ghost Intruders" and faceless "Shadow-People"-The role of the right hemisphere and economizing nature of vision. Med Hypotheses 2021; 148:110521. [PMID: 33573871 DOI: 10.1016/j.mehy.2021.110521] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/12/2020] [Revised: 01/17/2021] [Accepted: 01/25/2021] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
Abstract
Sleep paralysis is a curious condition where the paralyzed person may hallucinate terrifying ghosts. These hypnogogic and hypnopompic visions are common worldwide. They often entail seeing and sensing shadow beings; although hallucinating full-fledged figures (e.g., cat-like creatures and witches) are not uncommon. In this paper, I propose a neuroscientific account (building on previous work) for why people see ghosts during sleep paralysis and why these tend to manifest as faceless shadows. This novel venture considers the distinct computational styles of the right and left hemisphere and their functional specializations vis-à-vis florid intruder hallucinations and out-of-body experiences (OBEs) during these dream-like states. Additionally, I provide a brain-based explanation for dissociative phenomena common during sleep paralysis. Specifically, I posit that these ghost hallucinations and OBEs are chiefly mediated by activity in key regions in the right hemisphere; and outline how the functional organization of the visual system (evoking concepts like surface interpolation) and its economizing nature (i.e., proclivity to minimize computational load and take short-cuts) can explain faceless humanoid-shadows and sensed presence hallucinations during sleep paralysis; and how the hypothalamus and anterior cingulate may be implicated during related dissociative states. Ultimately empirical research must shed light on the validity of this account. If this hypothesis is correct, patients with right hemisphere damage (i.e., in implicated areas) should be less likely to hallucinate ghosts during sleep paralysis; i.e., compared to those with intact hemispheres or damage to the left only. It may also be possible to temporarily disable right hemisphere functions during sleep paralysis using transcranial magnetic stimulation. Accordingly, this procedure should eradicate sleep paralysis ghost hallucinations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Baland Jalal
- Harvard University, USA; University of Cambridge, UK.
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212
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Serino A, Pozeg P, Bernasconi F, Solcà M, Hara M, Progin P, Stripeikyte G, Dhanis H, Salomon R, Bleuler H, Rognini G, Blanke O. Thought consciousness and source monitoring depend on robotically controlled sensorimotor conflicts and illusory states. iScience 2021; 24:101955. [PMID: 33458614 PMCID: PMC7797520 DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2020.101955] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/14/2020] [Revised: 10/27/2020] [Accepted: 12/14/2020] [Indexed: 10/25/2022] Open
Abstract
Thought insertion (TI) is characterized by the experience that certain thoughts, occurring in one's mind, are not one's own, but the thoughts of somebody else and suggestive of a psychotic disorder. We report a robotics-based method able to investigate the behavioral and subjective mechanisms of TI in healthy participants. We used a robotic device to alter body perception by providing online sensorimotor stimulation, while participants performed cognitive tasks implying source monitoring of mental states attributed to either oneself or another person. Across several experiments, conflicting sensorimotor stimulation reduced the distinction between self- and other-generated thoughts and was, moreover, associated with the experimentally generated feeling of being in the presence of an alien agent and subjective aspects of TI. Introducing a new robotics-based approach that enables the experimental study of the brain mechanisms of TI, these results link TI to predictable self-other shifts in source monitoring and specific sensorimotor processes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andrea Serino
- Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience, Brain Mind Institute, Faculty of Life Sciences, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL), Geneva, Switzerland
- Center for Neuroprosthetics, School of Life Sciences, Campus Biotech, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), 1012 Geneva, Switzerland
- MySpace Lab, Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University Hospital of Lausanne (CHUV), Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Polona Pozeg
- Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience, Brain Mind Institute, Faculty of Life Sciences, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL), Geneva, Switzerland
- Center for Neuroprosthetics, School of Life Sciences, Campus Biotech, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), 1012 Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Fosco Bernasconi
- Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience, Brain Mind Institute, Faculty of Life Sciences, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL), Geneva, Switzerland
- Center for Neuroprosthetics, School of Life Sciences, Campus Biotech, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), 1012 Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Marco Solcà
- Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience, Brain Mind Institute, Faculty of Life Sciences, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL), Geneva, Switzerland
- Center for Neuroprosthetics, School of Life Sciences, Campus Biotech, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), 1012 Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Masayuki Hara
- Control Engineering Laboratory, Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Saitama University, Saitama, 338-8570, Japan
| | - Pierre Progin
- Center for Psychiatric Neuroscience, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois (CHUV), University of Lausanne (UNIL), Lausanne, Switzerland
- Service of General Psychiatry, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois (CHUV), University of Lausanne (UNIL), Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Giedre Stripeikyte
- Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience, Brain Mind Institute, Faculty of Life Sciences, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL), Geneva, Switzerland
- Center for Neuroprosthetics, School of Life Sciences, Campus Biotech, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), 1012 Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Herberto Dhanis
- Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience, Brain Mind Institute, Faculty of Life Sciences, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL), Geneva, Switzerland
- Center for Neuroprosthetics, School of Life Sciences, Campus Biotech, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), 1012 Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Roy Salomon
- Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience, Brain Mind Institute, Faculty of Life Sciences, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL), Geneva, Switzerland
- Center for Neuroprosthetics, School of Life Sciences, Campus Biotech, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), 1012 Geneva, Switzerland
- Gonda Brain Research Center, Bar-IIan University, Ramat Gan, Israel
| | - Hannes Bleuler
- Laboratory of Robotic Systems, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Giulio Rognini
- Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience, Brain Mind Institute, Faculty of Life Sciences, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL), Geneva, Switzerland
- Center for Neuroprosthetics, School of Life Sciences, Campus Biotech, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), 1012 Geneva, Switzerland
- Laboratory of Robotic Systems, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Olaf Blanke
- Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience, Brain Mind Institute, Faculty of Life Sciences, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL), Geneva, Switzerland
- Center for Neuroprosthetics, School of Life Sciences, Campus Biotech, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), 1012 Geneva, Switzerland
- Service de Neurologie, University Hospital Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
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213
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Lawson RP, Bisby J, Nord CL, Burgess N, Rees G. The Computational, Pharmacological, and Physiological Determinants of Sensory Learning under Uncertainty. Curr Biol 2021; 31:163-172.e4. [PMID: 33188745 PMCID: PMC7808754 DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2020.10.043] [Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/07/2020] [Revised: 09/01/2020] [Accepted: 10/14/2020] [Indexed: 02/02/2023]
Abstract
The ability to represent and respond to uncertainty is fundamental to human cognition and decision-making. Noradrenaline (NA) is hypothesized to play a key role in coordinating the sensory, learning, and physiological states necessary to adapt to a changing world, but direct evidence for this is lacking in humans. Here, we tested the effects of attenuating noradrenergic neurotransmission on learning under uncertainty. We probed the effects of the β-adrenergic receptor antagonist propranolol (40 mg) using a between-subjects, double-blind, placebo-controlled design. Participants performed a probabilistic associative learning task, and we employed a hierarchical learning model to formally quantify prediction errors about cue-outcome contingencies and changes in these associations over time (volatility). Both unexpectedness and noise slowed down reaction times, but propranolol augmented the interaction between these main effects such that behavior was influenced more by prior expectations when uncertainty was high. Computationally, this was driven by a reduction in learning rates, with people slower to update their beliefs in the face of new information. Attenuating the global effects of NA also eliminated the phasic effects of prediction error and volatility on pupil size, consistent with slower belief updating. Finally, estimates of environmental volatility were predicted by baseline cardiac measures in all participants. Our results demonstrate that NA underpins behavioral and computational responses to uncertainty. These findings have important implications for understanding the impact of uncertainty on human biology and cognition.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rebecca P Lawson
- Department of Psychology, Downing Street, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 3EB, UK; MRC Cognition & Brain Sciences Unit, Chaucer Road, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 7EF, UK.
| | - James Bisby
- Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, Queen Square, University College London, London WC1N 3AZ, UK; Division of Psychiatry, Tottenham Court Road, University College London, London W1T 7NF, UK
| | - Camilla L Nord
- MRC Cognition & Brain Sciences Unit, Chaucer Road, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 7EF, UK
| | - Neil Burgess
- Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, Queen Square, University College London, London WC1N 3AZ, UK; Institute of Neurology, Queen Square, University College London, London WC1N 3BG, UK
| | - Geraint Rees
- Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, Queen Square, University College London, London WC1N 3AZ, UK; Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging, Queen Square, University College London, London WC1N 3AR, UK
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214
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Kreis I, Biegler R, Tjelmeland H, Mittner M, Klæbo Reitan S, Pfuhl G. Overestimation of volatility in schizophrenia and autism? A comparative study using a probabilistic reasoning task. PLoS One 2021; 16:e0244975. [PMID: 33411712 PMCID: PMC7790240 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0244975] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/26/2020] [Accepted: 12/18/2020] [Indexed: 12/24/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES A plethora of studies has investigated and compared social cognition in autism and schizophrenia ever since both conditions were first described in conjunction more than a century ago. Recent computational theories have proposed similar mechanistic explanations for various symptoms beyond social cognition. They are grounded in the idea of a general misestimation of uncertainty but so far, almost no studies have directly compared both conditions regarding uncertainty processing. The current study aimed to do so with a particular focus on estimation of volatility, i.e. the probability for the environment to change. METHODS A probabilistic decision-making task and a visual working (meta-)memory task were administered to a sample of 86 participants (19 with a diagnosis of high-functioning autism, 21 with a diagnosis of schizophrenia, and 46 neurotypically developing individuals). RESULTS While persons with schizophrenia showed lower visual working memory accuracy than neurotypical individuals, no significant group differences were found for metamemory or any of the probabilistic decision-making task variables. Nevertheless, exploratory analyses suggest that there may be an overestimation of volatility in subgroups of participants with autism and schizophrenia. Correlations revealed relationships between different variables reflecting (mis)estimation of uncertainty, visual working memory accuracy and metamemory. LIMITATIONS Limitations include the comparably small sample sizes of the autism and the schizophrenia group as well as the lack of cognitive ability and clinical symptom measures. CONCLUSIONS The results of the current study provide partial support for the notion of a general uncertainty misestimation account of autism and schizophrenia.
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Affiliation(s)
- Isabel Kreis
- Department of Psychology, Faculty of Health Sciences, UiT–The Arctic University of Norway, Tromsø, Norway
| | - Robert Biegler
- Department of Psychology, Faculty of Social and Educational Sciences, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway
| | - Håkon Tjelmeland
- Department of Mathematical Sciences, Faculty of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway
| | - Matthias Mittner
- Department of Psychology, Faculty of Health Sciences, UiT–The Arctic University of Norway, Tromsø, Norway
| | - Solveig Klæbo Reitan
- Department of Mental Health, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway
- Department of Mental Health, St Olav’s University Hospital, Trondheim, Norway
| | - Gerit Pfuhl
- Department of Psychology, Faculty of Health Sciences, UiT–The Arctic University of Norway, Tromsø, Norway
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215
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Fryer SL, Roach BJ, Hamilton HK, Bachman P, Belger A, Carrión RE, Duncan E, Johannesen J, Light GA, Niznikiewicz M, Addington J, Bearden CE, Cadenhead KS, Cannon TD, Cornblatt BA, McGlashan TH, Perkins DO, Seidman L, Tsuang M, Walker EF, Woods SW, Mathalon DH. Deficits in auditory predictive coding in individuals with the psychosis risk syndrome: Prediction of conversion to psychosis. JOURNAL OF ABNORMAL PSYCHOLOGY 2021; 129:599-611. [PMID: 32757603 DOI: 10.1037/abn0000513] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
The mismatch negativity (MMN) event-related potential (ERP) component is increasingly viewed as a prediction error signal elicited when a deviant sound violates the prediction that a frequent "standard" sound will repeat. Support for this predictive coding framework emerged with the identification of the repetition positivity (RP), a standard stimulus ERP component that increases with standard repetition and is thought to reflect strengthening of the standard's memory trace and associated predictive code. Using electroencephalographic recordings, we examined the RP elicited by repeating standard tones presented during a traditional "constant standard" MMN paradigm in individuals with the psychosis risk syndrome (PRS; n = 579) and healthy controls (HC; n = 241). Clinical follow-up assessments identified PRS participants who converted to a psychotic disorder (n = 77) and PRS nonconverters who were followed for the entire 24-month clinical follow-up period and either remained symptomatic (n = 144) or remitted from the PRS (n = 94). In HC, RP linearly increased from early- to late-appearing standards within local trains of repeating standards (p < .0001), consistent with auditory predictive code/memory trace strengthening. Relative to HC, PRS participants showed a reduced RP across standards (p = .0056). PRS converters showed a relatively small RP deficit for early appearing standards relative to HC (p = .0.0107) and a more prominent deficit for late-appearing standards (p = .0006) relative to both HC and PRS-remitted groups. Moreover, greater RP deficits predicted shorter time to conversion in a subsample of unmedicated PRS individuals (p = .02). Thus, auditory predictive coding/memory trace deficits precede psychosis onset and predict future psychosis risk in PRS individuals. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | | | | | - Aysenil Belger
- Department of Psychiatry, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
| | - Ricardo E Carrión
- Division of Psychiatry Research, The Zucker Hillside Hospital, North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System
| | | | | | - Gregory A Light
- Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Diego
| | - Margaret Niznikiewicz
- Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
| | - Jean Addington
- Hotchkiss Brain Institute Department of Psychiatry, University of Calgary
| | - Carrie E Bearden
- Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, University of California, Los Angeles
| | | | | | - Barbara A Cornblatt
- Division of Psychiatry Research, The Zucker Hillside Hospital, North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System
| | | | - Diana O Perkins
- Department of Psychiatry, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
| | - Larry Seidman
- Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
| | - Ming Tsuang
- Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Diego
| | | | - Scott W Woods
- Department of Psychiatry, Yale University, School of Medicine
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216
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Haarsma J, Knolle F, Griffin JD, Taverne H, Mada M, Goodyer IM, The Nspn Consortium, Fletcher PC, Murray GK. Influence of prior beliefs on perception in early psychosis: Effects of illness stage and hierarchical level of belief. JOURNAL OF ABNORMAL PSYCHOLOGY 2021; 129:581-598. [PMID: 32757602 PMCID: PMC7409392 DOI: 10.1037/abn0000494] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/23/2022]
Abstract
Alterations in the balance between prior expectations and sensory evidence may account for faulty perceptions and inferences leading to psychosis. However, uncertainties remain about the nature of altered prior expectations and the degree to which they vary with the emergence of psychosis. We explored how expectations arising at two different levels—cognitive and perceptual—influenced processing of sensory information and whether relative influences of higher- and lower-level priors differed across people with prodromal symptoms and those with psychotic illness. In two complementary auditory perception experiments, 91 participants (30 with first-episode psychosis, 29 at clinical risk for psychosis, and 32 controls) were required to decipher a phoneme within ambiguous auditory input. Expectations were generated in two ways: an accompanying visual input of lip movements observed during auditory presentation or through written presentation of a phoneme provided prior to auditory presentation. We determined how these different types of information shaped auditory perceptual experience, how this was altered across the prodromal and established phases of psychosis, and how this relates to cingulate glutamate levels assessed by magnetic resonance spectroscopy. The psychosis group relied more on high-level cognitive priors compared to both healthy controls and those at clinical risk for psychosis and relied more on low-level perceptual priors than the clinical risk group. The risk group was marginally less reliant on low-level perceptual priors than controls. The results are consistent with previous theory that influences of prior expectations in perceptions in psychosis differ according to level of prior and illness phase. What we perceive and believe in any given moment will allow us to form expectations about what we will experience in the next. In psychosis, it is believed that the influence of these so-called perceptual and cognitive “prior” expectations on perception are altered, thereby giving rise to the symptoms seen in psychosis. However, research thus far has found mixed evidence, some suggesting an increase in the influence of priors and some finding a decrease. Here we test the hypothesis that perceptual and cognitive priors are differentially affected in individuals at risk for psychosis and individuals with a first episode of psychosis, thereby partially explaining the mixed findings in the literature. We indeed found evidence in favor of this hypothesis, finding weaker perceptual priors in individuals at risk but stronger cognitive priors in individuals with first-episode psychosis.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | | | | | - Marius Mada
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge
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217
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Tsai SH, Tsao CY, Lee LJ. Altered White Matter and Layer VIb Neurons in Heterozygous Disc1 Mutant, a Mouse Model of Schizophrenia. Front Neuroanat 2021; 14:605029. [PMID: 33384588 PMCID: PMC7769951 DOI: 10.3389/fnana.2020.605029] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/11/2020] [Accepted: 11/24/2020] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Increased white matter neuron density has been associated with neuropsychiatric disorders including schizophrenia. However, the pathogenic features of these neurons are still largely unknown. Subplate neurons, the earliest generated neurons in the developing cortex have also been associated with schizophrenia and autism. The link between these neurons and mental disorders is also not well established. Since cortical layer VIb neurons are believed to be the remnant of subplate neurons in the adult rodent brain, in this study, we aimed to examine the cytoarchitecture of neurons in cortical layer VIb and the underlying white matter in heterozygous Disc1 mutant (Het) mice, a mouse model of schizophrenia. In the white matter, the number of NeuN-positive neurons was quite low in the external capsule; however, the density of these cells was found increased (54%) in Het mice compared with wildtype (WT) littermates. The density of PV-positive neurons was unchanged in the mutants. In the cortical layer VIb, the density of CTGF-positive neurons increased (21.5%) in Het mice, whereas the number of Cplx3-positive cells reduced (16.1%) in these mutants, compared with WT mice. Layer VIb neurons can be classified by their morphological characters. The morphology of Type I pyramidal neurons was comparable between genotypes while the dendritic length and complexity of Type II multipolar neurons were significantly reduced in Het mice. White matter neurons and layer VIb neurons receive synaptic inputs and modulate the process of sensory information and sleep/arousal pattern. Aberrances of these neurons in Disc1 mutants implies altered brain functions in these mice.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shin-Hwa Tsai
- School of Medicine, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Chih-Yu Tsao
- Graduate Institute of Anatomy and Cell Biology, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan
| | - Li-Jen Lee
- School of Medicine, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan.,Graduate Institute of Anatomy and Cell Biology, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan.,Institute of Brain and Mind Sciences, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan.,Neurobiology and Cognitive Science Center, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan
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218
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Precision weighting of cortical unsigned prediction error signals benefits learning, is mediated by dopamine, and is impaired in psychosis. Mol Psychiatry 2021; 26:5320-5333. [PMID: 32576965 PMCID: PMC8589669 DOI: 10.1038/s41380-020-0803-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 39] [Impact Index Per Article: 13.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/11/2019] [Revised: 04/24/2020] [Accepted: 05/28/2020] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
Recent theories of cortical function construe the brain as performing hierarchical Bayesian inference. According to these theories, the precision of prediction errors plays a key role in learning and decision-making, is controlled by dopamine and contributes to the pathogenesis of psychosis. To test these hypotheses, we studied learning with variable outcome-precision in healthy individuals after dopaminergic modulation with a placebo, a dopamine receptor agonist bromocriptine or a dopamine receptor antagonist sulpiride (dopamine study n = 59) and in patients with early psychosis (psychosis study n = 74: 20 participants with first-episode psychosis, 30 healthy controls and 24 participants with at-risk mental state attenuated psychotic symptoms). Behavioural computational modelling indicated that precision weighting of prediction errors benefits learning in health and is impaired in psychosis. FMRI revealed coding of unsigned prediction errors, which signal surprise, relative to their precision in superior frontal cortex (replicated across studies, combined n = 133), which was perturbed by dopaminergic modulation, impaired in psychosis and associated with task performance and schizotypy (schizotypy correlation in 86 healthy volunteers). In contrast to our previous work, we did not observe significant precision-weighting of signed prediction errors, which signal valence, in the midbrain and ventral striatum in the healthy controls (or patients) in the psychosis study. We conclude that healthy people, but not patients with first-episode psychosis, take into account the precision of the environment when updating beliefs. Precision weighting of cortical prediction error signals is a key mechanism through which dopamine modulates inference and contributes to the pathogenesis of psychosis.
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219
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Haarsma J, Harmer CJ, Tamm S. A continuum hypothesis of psychotomimetic rapid antidepressants. Brain Neurosci Adv 2021; 5:23982128211007772. [PMID: 34017922 PMCID: PMC8114748 DOI: 10.1177/23982128211007772] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/30/2020] [Accepted: 03/08/2021] [Indexed: 01/10/2023] Open
Abstract
Ketamine, classical psychedelics and sleep deprivation are associated with rapid effects on depression. Interestingly, these interventions also have common psychotomimetic actions, mirroring aspects of psychosis such as an altered sense of self, perceptual distortions and distorted thinking. This raises the question whether these interventions might be acute antidepressants through the same mechanisms that underlie some of their psychotomimetic effects. That is, perhaps some symptoms of depression can be understood as occupying the opposite end of a spectrum where elements of psychosis can be found on the other side. This review aims at reviewing the evidence underlying a proposed continuum hypothesis of psychotomimetic rapid antidepressants, suggesting that a range of psychotomimetic interventions are also acute antidepressants as well as trying to explain these common features in a hierarchical predictive coding framework, where we hypothesise that these interventions share a common mechanism by increasing the flexibility of prior expectations. Neurobiological mechanisms at play and the role of different neuromodulatory systems affected by these interventions and their role in controlling the precision of prior expectations and new sensory evidence will be reviewed. The proposed hypothesis will also be discussed in relation to other existing theories of antidepressants. We also suggest a number of novel experiments to test the hypothesis and highlight research areas that could provide further insights, in the hope to better understand the acute antidepressant properties of these interventions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Joost Haarsma
- Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging, University College London, London, UK
| | - Catherine J Harmer
- Department of Psychiatry and Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust, Warneford Hospital, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
| | - Sandra Tamm
- Department of Psychiatry and Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust, Warneford Hospital, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
- Stress Research Institute, Department of Psychology, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden
- Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden
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220
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Waters F, Barnby JM, Blom JD. Hallucination, imagery, dreaming: reassembling stimulus-independent perceptions based on Edmund Parish's classic misperception framework. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2020; 376:20190701. [PMID: 33308065 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2019.0701] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/29/2023] Open
Abstract
Within the broad field of human perception lies the category of stimulus-independent perceptions, which draws together experiences such as hallucinations, mental imagery and dreams. Traditional divisions between medical and psychological sciences have contributed to these experiences being investigated separately. This review aims to examine their similarities and differences at the levels of phenomenology and underlying brain function and thus reassemble them within a common framework. Using Edmund Parish's historical work as a guiding tool and the latest research findings in the cognitive, clinical and computational sciences, we consider how different perspectives may be reconciled and help generate novel hypotheses for future research. This article is part of the theme issue 'Offline perception: voluntary and spontaneous perceptual experiences without matching external stimulation'.
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Affiliation(s)
- Flavie Waters
- Clinical Research Centre, Graylands Hospital, North Metropolitan Health Service-Mental Health, Perth, Western Australia, Australia.,School of Psychological Sciences, University of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia, Australia
| | - Joseph M Barnby
- Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King's College, London, UK
| | - Jan Dirk Blom
- Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands.,Parnassia Psychiatric Institute, The Hague, The Netherlands.,Department of Psychiatry, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands
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221
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Thakkar KN, Ghermezi L, Silverstein SM, Slate R, Yao B, Achtyes ED, Brascamp JW. Stronger tilt aftereffects in persons with schizophrenia. JOURNAL OF ABNORMAL PSYCHOLOGY 2020; 130:186-197. [PMID: 33301337 DOI: 10.1037/abn0000653] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/30/2023]
Abstract
Individuals with schizophrenia may fail to appropriately use temporal context and apply past environmental regularities to the interpretation of incoming sensory information. Here we use the visual system as a test bed for investigating how prior experience shapes perception in individuals with schizophrenia. Specifically, we use visual aftereffects, illusory percepts resulting from prior exposure to visual input, to measure the influence of prior events on current processing. At a neural level, visual aftereffects arise due to attenuation in the responses of neurons that code the features of the prior stimulus (neuronal adaptation) and subsequent disinhibition of neurons signaling activity at the opposite end of the feature dimension. In the current study, we measured tilt aftereffects and negative afterimages, 2 types of aftereffects that reflect, respectively, adaptation of cortical orientation-coding neurons and adaptation of subcortical and retinal luminance-coding cells in persons with schizophrenia (PSZ; n = 36) and demographically matched healthy controls (HC; n = 22). We observed stronger tilt aftereffects in PSZ compared to HC, but no difference in negative afterimages. Stronger tilt aftereffects were related to more severe negative symptoms. These data suggest oversensitivity to recent regularities, in the form of stronger visual adaptation, at cortical, but not subcortical, levels in schizophrenia. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).
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222
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Millman ZB, Gallagher K, Demro C, Schiffman J, Reeves GM, Gold JM, Rakhshan PJ, Fitzgerald J, Andorko N, Redman S, Buchanan R, Rowland L, Waltz JA. Evidence of reward system dysfunction in youth at clinical high-risk for psychosis from two event-related fMRI paradigms. Schizophr Res 2020; 226:111-119. [PMID: 30995969 PMCID: PMC6801019 DOI: 10.1016/j.schres.2019.03.017] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/28/2018] [Revised: 03/20/2019] [Accepted: 03/22/2019] [Indexed: 12/11/2022]
Abstract
Abnormal reward processing is thought to play an important role in the development of psychosis, but relatively few studies have examined reward prediction errors, reinforcement learning (RL), and the reward circuitry that subserves these interconnected processes among individuals at clinical high-risk (CHR) for the disorder. Here, we present behavioral and functional neuroimaging results of two experimental tasks designed to measure overlapping aspects of reward processing among individuals at CHR (n = 22) and healthy controls (n = 19). We found no group differences in response times to positive, negative, or neutral outcome-signaling cues, and no significant differences in brain activation during reward anticipation or receipt. Youth at CHR, however, displayed clear RL impairments, as well as attenuated responses to rewards and blunted prediction error signals in the ventral striatum, dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC), and ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC). Greater contrasts for cue valence (gain-loss) and outcome magnitude (large-small) in the vmPFC were associated with more severe negative symptoms, and deficits in dACC signaling during RL were associated with more depressive symptoms. Our results provide evidence for RL deficits and abnormal prediction error signaling in the brain's reward circuitry among individuals at CHR, while also suggesting that reward motivation may be relatively preserved at this stage in development. Longitudinal studies, medication-free participants, and comparison of neurobehavioral measures against both healthy and clinical controls are needed to better understand the role of reward system abnormalities in the development of psychosis.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zachary B. Millman
- Department of Psychology, University of Maryland, Baltimore County, 1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, MD 21250, USA
| | - Keith Gallagher
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Maryland, Baltimore, 701 W. Pratt Street, Baltimore MD 21201 USA
| | - Caroline Demro
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Minnesota Medical School, 2312 S. 6th St., Floor 2, Suite F-275, Minneapolis, MD, 55454
| | - Jason Schiffman
- Department of Psychology, University of Maryland, Baltimore County, 1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, MD 21250, USA.
| | - Gloria M. Reeves
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Maryland, Baltimore, 701 W. Pratt Street, Baltimore MD 21201 USA
| | - James M. Gold
- Maryland Psychiatric Research Center, University of Maryland School of Medicine, 55 Wade Ave, Catonsville, MD, 21228
| | - Pamela J. Rakhshan
- Department of Psychology, University of Maryland, Baltimore County, 1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, MD 21250, USA
| | - John Fitzgerald
- Department of Psychology, University of Maryland, Baltimore County, 1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, MD 21250, USA
| | - Nicole Andorko
- Department of Psychology, University of Maryland, Baltimore County, 1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, MD 21250, USA
| | - Samantha Redman
- Department of Psychology, University of Maryland, Baltimore County, 1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, MD 21250, USA
| | - Robert Buchanan
- Maryland Psychiatric Research Center, University of Maryland School of Medicine, 55 Wade Ave, Catonsville, MD, 21228
| | - Laura Rowland
- Maryland Psychiatric Research Center, University of Maryland School of Medicine, 55 Wade Ave, Catonsville, MD, 21228
| | - James A. Waltz
- Maryland Psychiatric Research Center, University of Maryland School of Medicine, 55 Wade Ave, Catonsville, MD, 21228
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223
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Greenman D, La M, Shah S, Chen Q, Berman KF, Weinberger DR, Tan HY. Parietal-Prefrontal Feedforward Connectivity in Association With Schizophrenia Genetic Risk and Delusions. Am J Psychiatry 2020; 177:1151-1158. [PMID: 32456505 PMCID: PMC7704895 DOI: 10.1176/appi.ajp.2020.19111176] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/26/2022]
Abstract
OBJECTIVE Conceptualizations of delusion formation implicate deficits in feedforward information updating across the posterior to prefrontal cortices, resulting in dysfunctional integration of new information about contexts in working memory and, ultimately, failure to update overfamiliar prior beliefs. The authors used functional MRI and machine learning models to address individual variability in feedforward parietal-prefrontal information updating in patients with schizophrenia. They examined relationships between feedforward connectivity, and delusional thinking and polygenic risk for schizophrenia. METHODS The authors studied 66 schizophrenia patients and 143 healthy control subjects during performance of context updating in working memory. Dynamic causal models of effective connectivity were focused on regions of the prefrontal and parietal cortex potentially implicated in delusion processes. The effect of polygenic risk for schizophrenia on connectivity was examined in healthy individuals. The authors then leveraged support vector regression models to define optimal normalized target connectivity tailored for each patient and tested the extent to which deviation from this target could predict individual variation in severity of delusions. RESULTS In schizophrenia patients, updating and manipulating context information was disproportionately less accurate than was working memory maintenance, with an interaction of task accuracy by diagnosis. Patients with delusions also tended to have relatively reduced parietal-prefrontal feedforward effective connectivity during context updating in working memory manipulation. The same connectivity was adversely influenced by polygenic risk for schizophrenia in healthy subjects. Individual patients' deviation from predicted "normal" feedforward connectivity based on the support vector regression models correlated with severity of delusions. CONCLUSIONS These computationally derived observations support a role for feedforward parietal-prefrontal information processing deficits in delusional psychopathology and in genetic risk for schizophrenia.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Michelle La
- Lieber Institute for Brain Development, Baltimore, MD, US
| | - Shefali Shah
- Lieber Institute for Brain Development, Baltimore, MD, US
| | - Qiang Chen
- Lieber Institute for Brain Development, Baltimore, MD, US
| | - Karen F Berman
- Clinical and Translational Neuroscience Branch, Section on Integrative Neuroimaging, Psychosis and Cognitive Studies Section, National Institute of Mental Health Intramural Research Program, Bethesda, MD
| | - Daniel R Weinberger
- Lieber Institute for Brain Development, Baltimore, MD, US
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD
- Departments of Neurology, Neuroscience and the McKusick Nathans Institute of Genetic Medicine, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD
| | - Hao Yang Tan
- Lieber Institute for Brain Development, Baltimore, MD, US
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD
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224
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Sharpe V, Weber K, Kuperberg GR. Impairments in Probabilistic Prediction and Bayesian Learning Can Explain Reduced Neural Semantic Priming in Schizophrenia. Schizophr Bull 2020; 46:1558-1566. [PMID: 32432697 PMCID: PMC7846190 DOI: 10.1093/schbul/sbaa069] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/05/2023]
Abstract
It has been proposed that abnormalities in probabilistic prediction and dynamic belief updating explain the multiple features of schizophrenia. Here, we used electroencephalography (EEG) to ask whether these abnormalities can account for the well-established reduction in semantic priming observed in schizophrenia under nonautomatic conditions. We isolated predictive contributions to the neural semantic priming effect by manipulating the prime's predictive validity and minimizing retroactive semantic matching mechanisms. We additionally examined the link between prediction and learning using a Bayesian model that probed dynamic belief updating as participants adapted to the increase in predictive validity. We found that patients were less likely than healthy controls to use the prime to predictively facilitate semantic processing on the target, resulting in a reduced N400 effect. Moreover, the trial-by-trial output of our Bayesian computational model explained between-group differences in trial-by-trial N400 amplitudes as participants transitioned from conditions of lower to higher predictive validity. These findings suggest that, compared with healthy controls, people with schizophrenia are less able to mobilize predictive mechanisms to facilitate processing at the earliest stages of accessing the meanings of incoming words. This deficit may be linked to a failure to adapt to changes in the broader environment. This reciprocal relationship between impairments in probabilistic prediction and Bayesian learning/adaptation may drive a vicious cycle that maintains cognitive disturbances in schizophrenia.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Kirsten Weber
- Department of Neurobiology of Language, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
- Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behavior, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
| | - Gina R Kuperberg
- Department of Psychology, Tufts University, Medford, MA
- Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA
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225
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Disruption of Conscious Access in Psychosis Is Associated with Altered Structural Brain Connectivity. J Neurosci 2020; 41:513-523. [PMID: 33229501 DOI: 10.1523/jneurosci.0945-20.2020] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/17/2020] [Revised: 08/10/2020] [Accepted: 09/20/2020] [Indexed: 11/21/2022] Open
Abstract
According to global neuronal workspace (GNW) theory, conscious access relies on long-distance cerebral connectivity to allow a global neuronal ignition coding for conscious content. In patients with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, both alterations in cerebral connectivity and an increased threshold for conscious perception have been reported. The implications of abnormal structural connectivity for disrupted conscious access and the relationship between these two deficits and psychopathology remain unclear. The aim of this study was to determine the extent to which structural connectivity is correlated with consciousness threshold, particularly in psychosis. We used a visual masking paradigm to measure consciousness threshold, and diffusion MRI tractography to assess structural connectivity in 97 humans of either sex with varying degrees of psychosis: healthy control subjects (n = 46), schizophrenia patients (n = 25), and bipolar disorder patients with (n = 17) and without (n = 9) a history of psychosis. Patients with psychosis (schizophrenia and bipolar disorder with psychotic features) had an elevated masking threshold compared with control subjects and bipolar disorder patients without psychotic features. Masking threshold correlated negatively with the mean general fractional anisotropy of white matter tracts exclusively within the GNW network (inferior frontal-occipital fasciculus, cingulum, and corpus callosum). Mediation analysis demonstrated that alterations in long-distance connectivity were associated with an increased masking threshold, which in turn was linked to psychotic symptoms. Our findings support the hypothesis that long-distance structural connectivity within the GNW plays a crucial role in conscious access, and that conscious access may mediate the association between impaired structural connectivity and psychosis.
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226
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Tran DMD, McNair NA, Harris JA, Livesey EJ. Expected TMS excites the motor system less effectively than unexpected stimulation. Neuroimage 2020; 226:117541. [PMID: 33186721 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2020.117541] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/21/2020] [Revised: 10/26/2020] [Accepted: 10/29/2020] [Indexed: 11/30/2022] Open
Abstract
The brain's response to sensory input is modulated by prediction. For example, sounds that are produced by one's own actions, or those that are strongly predicted by environmental cues, elicit an attenuated N1 component in the auditory evoked potential. It has been suggested that this form of sensory attenuation to stimulation produced by one's own actions is the reason we are unable to tickle ourselves. Here we examined whether the neural response to direct stimulation of the brain is attenuated by prediction in a similar manner. Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) applied over primary motor cortex can be used to gauge the excitability of the motor system. Motor-evoked potentials (MEPs), elicited by TMS and measured in peripheral muscles, are larger when actions are being prepared and smaller when actions are voluntarily suppressed. We tested whether the amplitude of MEPs was attenuated under circumstances where the TMS pulse can be reliably predicted, even though control of the relevant motor effector was never required. Self-initiation of the TMS pulse and reliable cuing of the TMS pulse both produced attenuated MEP amplitudes, compared to those generated programmatically in an unpredictable manner. These results suggest that predictive coding may be governed by domain-general mechanisms responsible for all forms predictive learning. The findings also have important methodological implications for designing TMS experiments that control for the predictability of TMS pulses.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | | | - Evan J Livesey
- School of Psychology, The University of Sydney, Australia
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227
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Hobson JA, Gott JA, Friston KJ. Minds and Brains, Sleep and Psychiatry. PSYCHIATRIC RESEARCH AND CLINICAL PRACTICE 2020; 3:12-28. [PMID: 35174319 PMCID: PMC8834904 DOI: 10.1176/appi.prcp.20200023] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/12/2020] [Accepted: 10/14/2020] [Indexed: 11/30/2022] Open
Abstract
Objective This article offers a philosophical thesis for psychiatric disorders that rests upon some simple truths about the mind and brain. Specifically, it asks whether the dual aspect monism—that emerges from sleep research and theoretical neurobiology—can be applied to pathophysiology and psychopathology in psychiatry. Methods Our starting point is that the mind and brain are emergent aspects of the same (neuronal) dynamics; namely, the brain–mind. Our endpoint is that synaptic dysconnection syndromes inherit the same dual aspect; namely, aberrant inference or belief updating on the one hand, and a failure of neuromodulatory synaptic gain control on the other. We start with some basic considerations from sleep research that integrate the phenomenology of dreaming with the neurophysiology of sleep. Results We then leverage this treatment by treating the brain as an organ of inference. Our particular focus is on the role of precision (i.e., the representation of uncertainty) in belief updating and the accompanying synaptic mechanisms. Conclusions Finally, we suggest a dual aspect approach—based upon belief updating (i.e., mind processes) and its neurophysiological implementation (i.e., brain processes)—has a wide explanatory compass for psychiatry and various movement disorders. This approach identifies the kind of pathophysiology that underwrites psychopathology—and points to certain psychotherapeutic and psychopharmacological targets, which may stand in mechanistic relation to each other. The ‘mind’ emerges from Bayesian belief updating in the ‘brain’ Psychopathology can be read as aberrant belief updating. Aberrant belief updating follows from any neuromodulatory synaptopathy
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Affiliation(s)
- J. Allan Hobson
- Division of Sleep Medicine Harvard Medical School Boston Massachusetts
| | - Jarrod A. Gott
- Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour Radboud University Nijmegen
| | - Karl J. Friston
- The Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging University College London London
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228
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Vogel DHV, Jording M, Kupke C, Vogeley K. The Temporality of Situated Cognition. Front Psychol 2020; 11:546212. [PMID: 33132954 PMCID: PMC7550648 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.546212] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/27/2020] [Accepted: 08/27/2020] [Indexed: 12/02/2022] Open
Abstract
Situated cognition embeds perceptions, thoughts, and behavior within the contextual framework of so-called “4E cognition” understanding cognition to be embodied, enactive, extended, and embedded. Whereas this definition is primarily based on the spatial properties of a situation, it neglects a fundamental constituent: the cognitive situation as enduring. On a subpersonal level, situated cognition requires the integration of information processing within a minimal temporal extension generating the basic building blocks of perception and action (“microlayer” of time). On a personal level, lived situations and experienced narratives leading to our biography can be defined by their broader temporal horizons (“macrolayer” of time). The macrolayer of time is based on and emerges from information processing on the microlayer of time. Whereas the constraints on the microlayer are primarily defined by the integrity of neurobiological processes within an individual cognitive system, the temporal horizons and subsequently the situational context on the macrolayer are defined by the complex affordances of a situation on a personal or interpersonal level. On both time layers, cognition can be defined as a continuous dynamic process, reflecting the transition from one situated state to another. Taken together, the events forming the delimiting horizons of these situations correspond to the temporal structure of the cognitive process along which it continuously proceeds. The dynamic driving and enabling this transition from state to state is synonymous with the inherent flow of time. Just as the layers of time, flow and structure, are inseparably connected. The integration of temporal flow and temporal structure into the continuous dynamic process constitutes the enduring situatedness of cognition. By providing everyday examples and examples from psychopathology, we highlight the benefits of understanding cognitive processes as part of enduring situations.
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Affiliation(s)
- David H V Vogel
- Research Center Jülich, Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine (INM3), Jülich, Germany.,Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine and University Hospital Cologne, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany
| | - Mathis Jording
- Research Center Jülich, Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine (INM3), Jülich, Germany.,Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine and University Hospital Cologne, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany
| | - Christian Kupke
- Department of Psychiatry, Society for Philosophy and Sciences of the Psyche, Charité, Humboldt-University Berlin, Berlin, Germany
| | - Kai Vogeley
- Research Center Jülich, Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine (INM3), Jülich, Germany.,Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine and University Hospital Cologne, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany
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229
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Strube W, Marshall L, Quattrocchi G, Little S, Cimpianu CL, Ulbrich M, Schneider-Axmann T, Falkai P, Hasan A, Bestmann S. Glutamatergic Contribution to Probabilistic Reasoning and Jumping to Conclusions in Schizophrenia: A Double-Blind, Randomized Experimental Trial. Biol Psychiatry 2020; 88:687-697. [PMID: 32513424 DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2020.03.018] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/07/2019] [Revised: 03/04/2020] [Accepted: 03/23/2020] [Indexed: 12/28/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Impaired probabilistic reasoning and the jumping-to-conclusions reasoning bias are hallmark features of schizophrenia (SCZ), yet the neuropharmacological basis of these deficits remains unclear. Here we tested the hypothesis that glutamatergic neurotransmission specifically contributes to jumping to conclusions and impaired probabilistic reasoning in SCZ. METHODS A total of 192 healthy participants received either NMDA receptor agonists/antagonists (D-cycloserine/dextromethorphan), dopamine type 2 receptor agonists/antagonists (bromocriptine/haloperidol), or placebo in a randomized, double-blind, between-subjects design. In addition, we tested 32 healthy control participants matched to 32 psychotic inpatients with SCZ-a state associated with compromised probabilistic reasoning due to reduced glutamatergic neurotransmission. All experiments employed two versions of a probabilistic reasoning (beads) task, which required participants to either sample individual amounts of sensory information to infer correct decisions or provide explicit probability estimates for presented sensory information. Our task instantiations assessed both information sampling and explicit probability estimates in different probabilistic contexts (easy vs. difficult conditions) and changing sensory information through random transitions among easy, difficult, and ambiguous trial types. RESULTS Following administration of D-cycloserine, haloperidol, and bromocriptine, healthy participants displayed data-gathering behavior that was normal compared with placebo and was adequate in the context of all employed task conditions and trial level difficulties. However, healthy participants receiving dextromethorphan displayed a jumping-to-conclusions bias, abnormally increased probability estimates, and overweighting of sensory information. These effects were mirrored in patients with SCZ performing the same versions of the beads task. CONCLUSIONS Our findings provide novel neuropharmacological evidence linking reduced glutamatergic neurotransmission to impaired information sampling and to disrupted probabilistic reasoning, namely to overweighting of sensory evidence, in patients with SCZ.
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Affiliation(s)
- Wolfgang Strube
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Ludwig Maximillian University, Munich, Germany.
| | - Louise Marshall
- Department of Clinical and Movement Neurosciences, UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, Queen Square, London, United Kingdom
| | - Graziella Quattrocchi
- Department of Clinical and Movement Neurosciences, UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, Queen Square, London, United Kingdom
| | - Simon Little
- Department of Clinical and Movement Neurosciences, UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, Queen Square, London, United Kingdom; Department of Neurology, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California
| | - Camelia Lucia Cimpianu
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Ludwig Maximillian University, Munich, Germany
| | - Miriam Ulbrich
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Ludwig Maximillian University, Munich, Germany
| | | | - Peter Falkai
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Ludwig Maximillian University, Munich, Germany
| | - Alkomiet Hasan
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Ludwig Maximillian University, Munich, Germany; Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics of the University Augsburg, Bezirkskrankenhaus Augsburg, University of Augsburg, Augsburg, Germany
| | - Sven Bestmann
- Department of Clinical and Movement Neurosciences, UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, Queen Square, London, United Kingdom; Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging, UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, Queen Square, London, United Kingdom
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230
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Pinheiro AP, Schwartze M, Kotz SA. Cerebellar circuitry and auditory verbal hallucinations: An integrative synthesis and perspective. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 2020; 118:485-503. [DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2020.08.004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/07/2020] [Revised: 06/30/2020] [Accepted: 08/07/2020] [Indexed: 02/06/2023]
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231
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Wengler K, Goldberg AT, Chahine G, Horga G. Distinct hierarchical alterations of intrinsic neural timescales account for different manifestations of psychosis. eLife 2020; 9:e56151. [PMID: 33107431 PMCID: PMC7591251 DOI: 10.7554/elife.56151] [Citation(s) in RCA: 38] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/18/2020] [Accepted: 10/05/2020] [Indexed: 12/14/2022] Open
Abstract
Hierarchical perceptual-inference models of psychosis may provide a holistic framework for understanding psychosis in schizophrenia including heterogeneity in clinical presentations. Particularly, hypothesized alterations at distinct levels of the perceptual-inference hierarchy may explain why hallucinations and delusions tend to cluster together yet sometimes manifest in isolation. To test this, we used a recently developed resting-state fMRI measure of intrinsic neural timescale (INT), which reflects the time window of neural integration and captures hierarchical brain gradients. In analyses examining extended sensory hierarchies that we first validated, we found distinct hierarchical INT alterations for hallucinations versus delusions in the auditory and somatosensory systems, thus providing support for hierarchical perceptual-inference models of psychosis. Simulations using a large-scale biophysical model suggested local elevations of excitation-inhibition ratio at different hierarchical levels as a potential mechanism. More generally, our work highlights the robustness and utility of INT for studying hierarchical processes relevant to basic and clinical neuroscience.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kenneth Wengler
- Department of Psychiatry, Columbia UniversityNew YorkUnited States
- New York State Psychiatric InstituteNew YorkUnited States
| | | | - George Chahine
- Department of Psychiatry, Yale UniversityNew HavenUnited States
| | - Guillermo Horga
- Department of Psychiatry, Columbia UniversityNew YorkUnited States
- New York State Psychiatric InstituteNew YorkUnited States
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232
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Wolf RC, Rashidi M, Schmitgen MM, Fritze S, Sambataro F, Kubera KM, Hirjak D. Neurological Soft Signs Predict Auditory Verbal Hallucinations in Patients With Schizophrenia. Schizophr Bull 2020; 47:433-443. [PMID: 33097950 PMCID: PMC7965075 DOI: 10.1093/schbul/sbaa146] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/11/2022]
Abstract
Neurological soft signs (NSS) are well documented in individuals with schizophrenia (SZ), yet so far, the relationship between NSS and specific symptom expression is unclear. We studied 76 SZ patients using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to determine associations between NSS, positive symptoms, gray matter volume (GMV), and neural activity at rest. SZ patients were hypothesis-driven stratified according to the presence or absence of auditory verbal hallucinations (AVH; n = 34 without vs 42 with AVH) according to the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale. Structural MRI data were analyzed using voxel-based morphometry, whereas intrinsic neural activity was investigated using regional homogeneity (ReHo) measures. Using ANCOVA, AVH patients showed significantly higher NSS in motor and integrative functions (IF) compared with non-hallucinating (nAVH) patients. Partial correlation revealed that NSS IF were positively associated with AVH symptom severity in AVH patients. Such associations were not confirmed for delusions. In region-of-interest ANCOVAs comprising the left middle and superior temporal gyri, right paracentral lobule, and right inferior parietal lobule (IPL) structure and function, significant differences between AVH and nAVH subgroups were not detected. In a binary logistic regression model, IF scores and right IPL ReHo were significant predictors of AVH. These data suggest significant interrelationships between sensorimotor integration abilities, brain structure and function, and AVH symptom expression.
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Affiliation(s)
- Robert C Wolf
- Department of General Psychiatry, Center for Psychosocial Medicine, Heidelberg University, Heidelberg, Germany,To whom correspondence should be addressed; Center for Psychosocial Medicine, Department of General Psychiatry, Heidelberg University, Voßstraße 4, 69115 Heidelberg, Germany; tel: +49-6221-564405, fax: +49-6221-564481, e-mail:
| | - Mahmoud Rashidi
- Department of General Psychiatry, Center for Psychosocial Medicine, Heidelberg University, Heidelberg, Germany,Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg University, Mannheim, Germany
| | - Mike M Schmitgen
- Department of General Psychiatry, Center for Psychosocial Medicine, Heidelberg University, Heidelberg, Germany
| | - Stefan Fritze
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg University, Mannheim, Germany
| | - Fabio Sambataro
- Department of Neuroscience (DNS), University of Padova, Padua, Italy,Padua Neuroscience Center, University of Padova, Padua, Italy
| | - Katharina M Kubera
- Department of General Psychiatry, Center for Psychosocial Medicine, Heidelberg University, Heidelberg, Germany
| | - Dusan Hirjak
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg University, Mannheim, Germany
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233
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Kätzel D, Wolff AR, Bygrave AM, Bannerman DM. Hippocampal Hyperactivity as a Druggable Circuit-Level Origin of Aberrant Salience in Schizophrenia. Front Pharmacol 2020; 11:486811. [PMID: 33178010 PMCID: PMC7596262 DOI: 10.3389/fphar.2020.486811] [Citation(s) in RCA: 25] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/23/2019] [Accepted: 09/18/2020] [Indexed: 01/21/2023] Open
Abstract
The development of current neuroleptics was largely aiming to decrease excessive dopaminergic signaling in the striatum. However, the notion that abnormal dopamine creates psychotic symptoms by causing an aberrant assignment of salience that drives maladaptive learning chronically during disease development suggests a therapeutic value of early interventions that correct salience-related neural processing. The mesolimbic dopaminergic output is modulated by several interconnected brain-wide circuits centrally involving the hippocampus and key relays like the ventral and associative striatum, ventral pallidum, amygdala, bed nucleus of the stria terminalis, nucleus reuniens, lateral and medial septum, prefrontal and cingulate cortex, among others. Unraveling the causal relationships between these circuits using modern neuroscience techniques holds promise for identifying novel cellular—and ultimately molecular—treatment targets for reducing transition to psychosis and symptoms of schizophrenia. Imaging studies in humans have implicated a hyperactivity of the hippocampus as a robust and early endophenotype in schizophrenia. Experiments in rodents, in turn, suggested that the activity of its output region—the ventral subiculum—may modulate dopamine release from ventral tegmental area (VTA) neurons in the ventral striatum. Even though these observations suggested a novel circuit-level target for anti-psychotic action, no therapy has yet been developed along this rationale. Recently evaluated treatment strategies—at least in part—target excess glutamatergic activity, e.g. N-acetyl-cysteine (NAC), levetiracetam, and mGluR2/3 modulators. We here review the evidence for the central implication of the hippocampus-VTA axis in schizophrenia-related pathology, discuss its symptom-related implications with a particular focus on aberrant assignment of salience, and evaluate some of its short-comings and prospects for drug discovery.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dennis Kätzel
- Institute for Applied Physiology, Ulm University, Ulm, Germany
| | - Amy R Wolff
- Department of Neuroscience, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, United States
| | - Alexei M Bygrave
- Department of Neuroscience, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, United States
| | - David M Bannerman
- Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom
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234
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Hurault JC, Broc G, Crône L, Tedesco A, Brunel L. Measuring the Sense of Agency: A French Adaptation and Validation of the Sense of Agency Scale (F-SoAS). Front Psychol 2020; 11:584145. [PMID: 33132992 PMCID: PMC7579422 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.584145] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/17/2020] [Accepted: 09/11/2020] [Indexed: 11/29/2022] Open
Abstract
Sense of Agency (SoA) is the subject of growing attention. It corresponds to the capacity to claim authorship over an action, associate specific consequences with a specific action, and it has been claimed to be a key point in the development of consciousness. It can be measured using the Sense of Agency Scale (SoAS), originally proposed by Tapal et al. (2017), who distinguished it into two-factor: Sense of Positive Agency (SoPA) and Sense of Negative Agency (SoNA). This study reports on the first adaptation of the SoAS into another language, French. For this French version of the Sense of Agency Scale (F-SoAS), we analyzed responses from a sample of 517 native French-speakers. Our results indicate that the scale has good psychometric properties. Factor analysis confirms the same two-factor model as Tapal et al. (2017). However, some items were removed due to insufficient loadings with factors, leading to a short version of the scale (7-item). Furthermore, we observed gender differences that are consistent with findings in the literature. Specifically, women report higher SoNA scores and lower SoPA scores than men. We conclude by discussing possible uses and future directions for the scale.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jean-Christophe Hurault
- Laboratory Epsylon EA 4556, Department of Psychology, University Montpellier 3, Montpellier, France
| | - Guillaume Broc
- Laboratory Epsylon EA 4556, Department of Psychology, University Montpellier 3, Montpellier, France
| | - Lola Crône
- Laboratory Epsylon EA 4556, Department of Psychology, University Montpellier 3, Montpellier, France
| | - Adrien Tedesco
- Centre de Recherches sur la Cognition et l’Apprentissage UMR7295, University of Poitiers, Poitiers, France
| | - Lionel Brunel
- Laboratory Epsylon EA 4556, Department of Psychology, University Montpellier 3, Montpellier, France
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235
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Aru J, Siclari F, Phillips WA, Storm JF. Apical drive-A cellular mechanism of dreaming? Neurosci Biobehav Rev 2020; 119:440-455. [PMID: 33002561 DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2020.09.018] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/19/2020] [Revised: 09/08/2020] [Accepted: 09/13/2020] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
Abstract
Dreams are internally generated experiences that occur independently of current sensory input. Here we argue, based on cortical anatomy and function, that dream experiences are tightly related to the workings of a specific part of cortical pyramidal neurons, the apical integration zone (AIZ). The AIZ receives and processes contextual information from diverse sources and could constitute a major switch point for transitioning from externally to internally generated experiences such as dreams. We propose that during dreams the output of certain pyramidal neurons is mainly driven by input into the AIZ. We call this mode of functioning "apical drive". Our hypothesis is based on the evidence that the cholinergic and adrenergic arousal systems, which show different dynamics between waking, slow wave sleep, and rapid eye movement sleep, have specific effects on the AIZ. We suggest that apical drive may also contribute to waking experiences, such as mental imagery. Future studies, investigating the different modes of apical function and their regulation during sleep and wakefulness are likely to be richly rewarded.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jaan Aru
- Institute of Computer Science, University of Tartu, Estonia; Institute of Biology, Humboldt University Berlin, Germany.
| | - Francesca Siclari
- Center for Investigation and Research on Sleep, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois, Lausanne, Switzerland; Department of Clinical Neurosciences, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois, Lausanne, Switzerland; Faculty of Natural Sciences, Psychology, University of Stirling, Stirling, United Kingdom.
| | - William A Phillips
- Faculty of Natural Sciences, Psychology, University of Stirling, Stirling, United Kingdom.
| | - Johan F Storm
- Brain Signalling Group, Section for Physiology, Faculty of Medicine, Domus Medica, University of Oslo, PB 1104 Blindern, 0317 Oslo, Norway.
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236
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Moon AL, Brydges NM, Wilkinson LS, Hall J, Thomas KL. Cacna1c Hemizygosity Results in Aberrant Fear Conditioning to Neutral Stimuli. Schizophr Bull 2020; 46:1231-1238. [PMID: 31910256 PMCID: PMC7505182 DOI: 10.1093/schbul/sbz127] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/16/2022]
Abstract
CACNA1C, a gene that encodes an alpha-1 subunit of L-type voltage-gated calcium channels, has been strongly associated with psychiatric disorders including schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. An important objective is to understand how variation in this gene can lead to an increased risk of psychopathology. Altered associative learning has also been implicated in the pathology of psychiatric disorders, particularly in the manifestation of psychotic symptoms. In this study, we utilize auditory-cued fear memory paradigms in order to investigate whether associative learning is altered in rats hemizygous for the Cacna1c gene. Cacna1c hemizygous (Cacna1c+/-) rats and their wild-type littermates were exposed to either delay, trace, or unpaired auditory fear conditioning. All rats received a Context Recall (24 h post-conditioning) and a Cue Recall (48 h post-conditioning) to test their fear responses. In the delay condition, which results in strong conditioning to the cue in wild-type animals, Cacna1c+/- rats showed increased fear responses to the context. In the trace condition, which results in strong conditioning to the context in wild-type animals, Cacna1c+/- rats showed increased fear responses to the cue. Finally, in the unpaired condition, Cacna1c+/- rats showed increased fear responses to both context and cue. These results indicate that Cacna1c heterozygous rats show aberrantly enhanced fear responses to inappropriate cues, consistent with key models of psychosis.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anna L Moon
- Neuroscience and Mental Health Research Institute, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK
- MRC Centre for Neuropsychiatric Genetics and Genomics, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK
| | - Nichola M Brydges
- Neuroscience and Mental Health Research Institute, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK
| | - Lawrence S Wilkinson
- Neuroscience and Mental Health Research Institute, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK
- MRC Centre for Neuropsychiatric Genetics and Genomics, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK
- School of Psychology, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK
| | - Jeremy Hall
- Neuroscience and Mental Health Research Institute, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK
- MRC Centre for Neuropsychiatric Genetics and Genomics, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK
| | - Kerrie L Thomas
- Neuroscience and Mental Health Research Institute, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK
- School of Biosciences, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK
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237
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Isomura T, Friston K. Reverse-Engineering Neural Networks to Characterize Their Cost Functions. Neural Comput 2020; 32:2085-2121. [PMID: 32946704 DOI: 10.1162/neco_a_01315] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/19/2022]
Abstract
This letter considers a class of biologically plausible cost functions for neural networks, where the same cost function is minimized by both neural activity and plasticity. We show that such cost functions can be cast as a variational bound on model evidence under an implicit generative model. Using generative models based on partially observed Markov decision processes (POMDP), we show that neural activity and plasticity perform Bayesian inference and learning, respectively, by maximizing model evidence. Using mathematical and numerical analyses, we establish the formal equivalence between neural network cost functions and variational free energy under some prior beliefs about latent states that generate inputs. These prior beliefs are determined by particular constants (e.g., thresholds) that define the cost function. This means that the Bayes optimal encoding of latent or hidden states is achieved when the network's implicit priors match the process that generates its inputs. This equivalence is potentially important because it suggests that any hyperparameter of a neural network can itself be optimized-by minimization with respect to variational free energy. Furthermore, it enables one to characterize a neural network formally, in terms of its prior beliefs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Takuya Isomura
- Brain Intelligence Theory Unit, RIKEN Center for Brain Science, Wako, Saitama 351-0198, Japan
| | - Karl Friston
- Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging, Institute of Neurology, University College London, London, WC1N 3AR, U.K.
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238
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Langland-Hassan P. Inner speech. WILEY INTERDISCIPLINARY REVIEWS. COGNITIVE SCIENCE 2020; 12:e1544. [PMID: 32949083 DOI: 10.1002/wcs.1544] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/20/2020] [Revised: 06/25/2020] [Accepted: 08/13/2020] [Indexed: 11/07/2022]
Abstract
Inner speech travels under many aliases: the inner voice, verbal thought, thinking in words, internal verbalization, "talking in your head," the "little voice in the head," and so on. It is both a familiar element of first-person experience and a psychological phenomenon whose complex cognitive components and distributed neural bases are increasingly well understood. There is evidence that inner speech plays a variety of cognitive roles, from enabling abstract thought, to supporting metacognition, memory, and executive function. One active area of controversy concerns the relation of inner speech to auditory verbal hallucinations (AVHs) in schizophrenia, with a common proposal being that sufferers of AVH misidentify their own inner speech as being generated by someone else. Recently, researchers have used artificial intelligence to translate the neural and neuromuscular signatures of inner speech into corresponding outer speech signals, laying the groundwork for a variety of new applications and interventions. This article is categorized under: Philosophy > Foundations of Cognitive Science Linguistics > Language in Mind and Brain Philosophy > Consciousness Philosophy > Psychological Capacities.
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239
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Straube B, van Kemenade BM, Kircher T, Schülke R. Transcranial direct current stimulation improves action-outcome monitoring in schizophrenia spectrum disorder. Brain Commun 2020; 2:fcaa151. [PMID: 33543133 PMCID: PMC7850031 DOI: 10.1093/braincomms/fcaa151] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/12/2020] [Revised: 08/05/2020] [Accepted: 08/13/2020] [Indexed: 12/22/2022] Open
Abstract
Patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorder often demonstrate impairments in action-outcome monitoring. Passivity phenomena and hallucinations, in particular, have been related to impairments of efference copy-based predictions which are relevant for the monitoring of outcomes produced by voluntary action. Frontal transcranial direct current stimulation has been shown to improve action-outcome monitoring in healthy subjects. However, whether transcranial direct current stimulation can improve action monitoring in patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorder remains unknown. We investigated whether transcranial direct current stimulation can improve the detection of temporal action-outcome discrepancies in patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorder. On 4 separate days, we applied sham or left cathodal/right anodal transcranial direct current stimulation in a randomized order to frontal (F3/F4), parietal (CP3/CP4) and frontoparietal (F3/CP4) areas of 19 patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorder and 26 healthy control subjects. Action-outcome monitoring was assessed subsequent to 10 min of sham/transcranial direct current stimulation (1.5 mA). After a self-generated (active) or externally generated (passive) key press, subjects were presented with a visual outcome (a dot on the screen), which was presented after various delays (0-417 ms). Participants had to detect delays between the key press and the visual consequence. Symptom subgroups were explored based on the presence or absence of symptoms related to a paranoid-hallucinatory syndrome. In general, delay-detection performance was impaired in the schizophrenia spectrum disorder compared to the healthy control group. Interaction analyses showed group-specific (schizophrenia spectrum disorder versus healthy control group) and symptom-specific (with/without relevant paranoid-hallucinatory symptoms) transcranial direct current stimulation effects. Post hoc tests revealed that frontal transcranial direct current stimulation improved the detection of long delays in active conditions and reduced the proportion of false alarms in undelayed trials of the passive condition in patients. The patients with no or few paranoid-hallucinatory symptoms benefited especially from frontal transcranial direct current stimulation in active conditions, while improvement in the patients with paranoid-hallucinatory symptoms was predominantly reflected in reduced false alarm rates in passive conditions. These data provide some first evidence for the potential utility of transcranial direct current stimulation in improving efference copy mechanisms and action-outcome monitoring in schizophrenia spectrum disorder. Current data indicate that improving efference copy-related processes can be especially effective in patients with no or few positive symptoms, while intersensory matching (i.e. task-relevant in passive conditions) could be more susceptible to improvement in patients with paranoid-hallucinatory symptoms.
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Affiliation(s)
- Benjamin Straube
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Philipps-University Marburg, Marburg, Germany
| | - Bianca M van Kemenade
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Philipps-University Marburg, Marburg, Germany
| | - Tilo Kircher
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Philipps-University Marburg, Marburg, Germany
| | - Rasmus Schülke
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Philipps-University Marburg, Marburg, Germany
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240
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Bottemanne H. [Bayesian brain: Can we model emotion?]. Encephale 2020; 47:58-63. [PMID: 32928524 DOI: 10.1016/j.encep.2020.04.022] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/17/2019] [Revised: 04/13/2020] [Accepted: 04/28/2020] [Indexed: 11/18/2022]
Abstract
Computational modeling builds mathematical models of cognitive phenomena to simulate patterns of perception, decision-making, and belief updating. These models mathematically represent the information processing by combining an anterior probability distribution, a likelihood function and a set of parameters and hyperparameters. Their use popularized the conception of a nervous system functioning as a predictive machine, or "bayesian brain". Applied to psychiatry, these models seek to explain how psychiatric dysfunction may emerge mechanistically. Despite the significance of emotions for cognitive phenomena and for psychiatric disorders, few computational models offer mathematical representations of emotion or incorporate emotional factors into their modeling parameters. We present here some computational hypotheses for the modeling of affective parameters, and we suggest that computational psychiatry would benefit from these modeling parameters.
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Affiliation(s)
- H Bottemanne
- Department of psychiatry, Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital, AP-HP, Paris, France.; Control-Interoception-Attention team, Paris Brain Institute, Sorbonne University, Paris, France..
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241
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Reduced serial dependence suggests deficits in synaptic potentiation in anti-NMDAR encephalitis and schizophrenia. Nat Commun 2020; 11:4250. [PMID: 32843635 PMCID: PMC7447775 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-18033-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 33] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/09/2019] [Accepted: 07/31/2020] [Indexed: 01/06/2023] Open
Abstract
A mechanistic understanding of core cognitive processes, such as working memory, is crucial to addressing psychiatric symptoms in brain disorders. We propose a combined psychophysical and biophysical account of two symptomatologically related diseases, both linked to hypofunctional NMDARs: schizophrenia and autoimmune anti-NMDAR encephalitis. We first quantified shared working memory alterations in a delayed-response task. In both patient groups, we report a markedly reduced influence of previous stimuli on working memory contents, despite preserved memory precision. We then simulated this finding with NMDAR-dependent synaptic alterations in a microcircuit model of prefrontal cortex. Changes in cortical excitation destabilized within-trial memory maintenance and could not account for disrupted serial dependence in working memory. Rather, a quantitative fit between data and simulations supports alterations of an NMDAR-dependent memory mechanism operating on longer timescales, such as short-term potentiation. Stein, Barbosa et al. show that anti-NMDAR encephalitis and schizophrenia are characterized by reduced serial dependence in spatial working memory. Cortical network simulations show that this can be parsimoniously explained by a reduction in NMDAR-dependent short-term synaptic potentiation in these diseases.
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242
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Kirchhoff MD, Kiverstein J. Attuning to the World: The Diachronic Constitution of the Extended Conscious Mind. Front Psychol 2020; 11:1966. [PMID: 32982832 PMCID: PMC7475699 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01966] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/29/2020] [Accepted: 07/15/2020] [Indexed: 12/16/2022] Open
Abstract
It is a near consensus among materialist philosophers of mind that consciousness must somehow be constituted by internal neural processes, even if we remain unsure quite how this works. Even friends of the extended mind theory have argued that when it comes to the material substrate of conscious experience, the boundary of skin and skull is likely to prove somehow to be privileged. Such arguments have, however, typically conceived of the constitution of consciousness in synchronic terms, making a firm separation between proximate mechanisms and their ultimate causes. We argue that the processes involved in the constitution of some conscious experiences are diachronic, not synchronic. We focus on what we call phenomenal attunement in this paper—the feeling of being at home in a familiar, culturally constructed environment. Such a feeling is missing in cases of culture shock. Phenomenal attunement is a structure of our conscious experience of the world that is ubiquitous and taken for granted. We will argue that it is constituted by cycles of embodied and world-involving engagement whose dynamics are constrained by cultural practices. Thus, it follows that an essential structure of the conscious mind, the absence of which profoundly transforms conscious experience, is extended.
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Affiliation(s)
- Michael D Kirchhoff
- Department of Philosophy, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW, Australia
| | - Julian Kiverstein
- Department of Psychiatry, Amsterdam University Medical Center, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands
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243
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De Ridder D, Vanneste S. The Bayesian brain in imbalance: Medial, lateral and descending pathways in tinnitus and pain: A perspective. PROGRESS IN BRAIN RESEARCH 2020; 262:309-334. [PMID: 33931186 DOI: 10.1016/bs.pbr.2020.07.012] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/20/2022]
Abstract
Tinnitus and pain share similarities in their anatomy, pathophysiology, clinical picture and treatments. Based on what is known in the pain field, a heuristic model can be proposed for the pathophysiolgy of tinnitus. This heuristic pathophysiological model suggests that pain and tinnitus are the consequence of an imbalance between two pain/tinnitus evoking pathways, i.e., a lateral sensory pathway and a medial affective pathway, both of which are not balanced anymore by a pain/noise inhibitory pathway. Mechanistically, based on the Bayesian brain concept, it can be explained by a switch occuring under influence of the rostral to dorsal anterior cingulate cortex of its prior predictions, i.e., a reference resetting, in which the pain/tinnitus state is considered as the new reference state. This reference resetting is confirmed by the nucleus accumbens as part of the reward system and maintained by connectivity changes between the nucleus accumbens and the pregenual anterior cingulate cortex. As a consequence it can be suggested to treat pain/tinnitus via reconditioning, either surgically or non-surgically. The model can also be used to develop objective measures for tinnitus and pain via supervised machine learning.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dirk De Ridder
- Department of Surgical Sciences, Section of Neurosurgery, Dunedin School of Medicine, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand.
| | - Sven Vanneste
- Global Brain Health Institute & Institute of Neuroscience, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
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244
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Hertäg L, Sprekeler H. Learning prediction error neurons in a canonical interneuron circuit. eLife 2020; 9:e57541. [PMID: 32820723 PMCID: PMC7442488 DOI: 10.7554/elife.57541] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/03/2020] [Accepted: 07/28/2020] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Sensory systems constantly compare external sensory information with internally generated predictions. While neural hallmarks of prediction errors have been found throughout the brain, the circuit-level mechanisms that underlie their computation are still largely unknown. Here, we show that a well-orchestrated interplay of three interneuron types shapes the development and refinement of negative prediction-error neurons in a computational model of mouse primary visual cortex. By balancing excitation and inhibition in multiple pathways, experience-dependent inhibitory plasticity can generate different variants of prediction-error circuits, which can be distinguished by simulated optogenetic experiments. The experience-dependence of the model circuit is consistent with that of negative prediction-error circuits in layer 2/3 of mouse primary visual cortex. Our model makes a range of testable predictions that may shed light on the circuitry underlying the neural computation of prediction errors.
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Affiliation(s)
- Loreen Hertäg
- Modelling of Cognitive Processes, Institute of Software Engineering and Theoretical Computer Science, Berlin Institute of TechnologyBerlinGermany
- Bernstein Center for Computational NeuroscienceBerlinGermany
| | - Henning Sprekeler
- Modelling of Cognitive Processes, Institute of Software Engineering and Theoretical Computer Science, Berlin Institute of TechnologyBerlinGermany
- Bernstein Center for Computational NeuroscienceBerlinGermany
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245
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Geng H, Xu P, Sommer IE, Luo YJ, Aleman A, Ćurčić-Blake B. Abnormal dynamic resting-state brain network organization in auditory verbal hallucination. Brain Struct Funct 2020; 225:2315-2330. [PMID: 32813156 PMCID: PMC7544708 DOI: 10.1007/s00429-020-02119-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/10/2020] [Accepted: 07/23/2020] [Indexed: 12/15/2022]
Abstract
Auditory-verbal hallucinations (AVH) are a key symptom of schizophrenia. Recent neuroimaging studies examining dynamic functional connectivity suggest that disrupted dynamic interactions between brain networks characterize complex symptoms in mental illness including schizophrenia. Studying dynamic connectivity may be especially relevant for hallucinations, given their fluctuating phenomenology. Indeed, it remains unknown whether AVH in schizophrenia are directly related to altered dynamic connectivity within and between key brain networks involved in auditory perception and language, emotion processing, and top-down control. In this study, we used dynamic connectivity approaches including sliding window and k-means to examine dynamic interactions among brain networks in schizophrenia patients with and without a recent history of AVH. Dynamic brain network analysis revealed that patients with AVH spent less time in a ‘network-antagonistic’ brain state where the default mode network (DMN) and the language network were anti-correlated, and had lower probability to switch into this brain state. Moreover, patients with AVH showed a lower connectivity within the language network and the auditory network, and lower connectivity was observed between the executive control and the language networks in certain dynamic states. Our study provides the first neuroimaging evidence of altered dynamic brain networks for understanding neural mechanisms of AVH in schizophrenia. The findings may inform and further strengthen cognitive models of AVH that aid the development of new coping strategies for patients.
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Affiliation(s)
- Haiyang Geng
- Center for Brain Disorders and Cognitive Sciences, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, China. .,Department of Biomedical Sciences of Cells and Systems, University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands.
| | - Pengfei Xu
- Beijing Key Laboratory of Applied Experimental Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China. .,Center for Emotion and Brain, Shenzhen Institute of Neuroscience, Shenzhen, China. .,Great Bay Neuroscience and Technology Research Institute (Hong Kong), Kwun Tong, Hong Kong, China.
| | - Iris E Sommer
- Department of Biomedical Sciences of Cells and Systems, University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands
| | - Yue-Jia Luo
- Center for Brain Disorders and Cognitive Sciences, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, China.,Center for Emotion and Brain, Shenzhen Institute of Neuroscience, Shenzhen, China.,Sichuan Center of Applied Psychology, Chengdu Medical College, Chengdu, China
| | - André Aleman
- Center for Brain Disorders and Cognitive Sciences, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, China.,Department of Biomedical Sciences of Cells and Systems, University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands
| | - Branislava Ćurčić-Blake
- Department of Biomedical Sciences of Cells and Systems, University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands
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246
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Yao B, Neggers SFW, Kahn RS, Thakkar KN. Altered thalamocortical structural connectivity in persons with schizophrenia and healthy siblings. NEUROIMAGE-CLINICAL 2020; 28:102370. [PMID: 32798913 PMCID: PMC7451425 DOI: 10.1016/j.nicl.2020.102370] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/19/2019] [Revised: 07/13/2020] [Accepted: 07/29/2020] [Indexed: 12/31/2022]
Abstract
Thalamo-prefrontal structural connectivity reduced in persons with schizophrenia. Similar reduction in thalamo-prefrontal connectivity in healthy siblings. Thalamo-motor structural connectivity increased in persons with schizophrenia. No alterations in thalamo-motor structural connectivity in healthy siblings.
Schizophrenia has long been framed as a disorder of altered brain connectivity, with dysfunction in thalamocortical circuity potentially playing a key role in the development of the illness phenotype, including psychotic symptomatology and cognitive impairments. There is emerging evidence for functional and structural hypoconnectivity between thalamus and prefrontal cortex in persons with schizophrenia spectrum disorders, as well as hyperconnectivity between thalamus and sensory and motor cortices. However, it is unclear whether thalamocortical dysconnectivity is a general marker of vulnerability to schizophrenia or a specific mechanism of schizophrenia pathophysiology. This study aimed to answer this question by using diffusion-weighted imaging to examine thalamocortical structural connectivity in 22 persons with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder (SZ), 20 siblings of individuals with a schizophrenia spectrum disorder (SIB), and 44 healthy controls (HC) of either sex. Probabilistic tractography was used to quantify structural connectivity between thalamus and six cortical regions of interest. Thalamocortical structural connectivity was compared among the three groups using cross-thalamic and voxel-wise approaches. Thalamo-prefrontal structural connectivity was reduced in both SZ and SIB relative to HC, while SZ and SIB did not differ from each other. Thalamo-motor structural connectivity was increased in SZ relative to SIB and HC, while SIB and HC did not differ from each other. Hemispheric differences also emerged in thalamic connectivity with motor, posterior parietal, and temporal cortices across all groups. The results support the hypothesis that altered thalamo-prefrontal structural connectivity is a general marker of vulnerability to schizophrenia, whereas altered connectivity between thalamus and motor cortex is related to illness expression or illness-related secondary factors.
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Affiliation(s)
- Beier Yao
- Department of Psychology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan, USA
| | | | - René S Kahn
- Department of Psychiatry, University Medical Center, Utrecht, the Netherlands; Department of Psychiatry, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA
| | - Katharine N Thakkar
- Department of Psychology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan, USA; Division of Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine, Michigan State University, Grand Rapids, MI, USA.
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247
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Meso AI, De Vai RL, Mahabeer A, Hills PJ. Evidence of inverted gravity-driven variation in predictive sensorimotor function. Eur J Neurosci 2020; 52:4803-4823. [PMID: 32730682 DOI: 10.1111/ejn.14926] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/14/2020] [Revised: 07/01/2020] [Accepted: 07/20/2020] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
We move our eyes to place the fovea into the part of a viewed scene currently of interest. Recent evidence suggests that each human has signature patterns of eye movements like handwriting which depend on their sensitivity, allocation of attention and experience. Use of implicit knowledge of how earth's gravity influences object motion has been shown to aid dynamic perception. We used a projected ball-tracking task with a plain background offering no context cues to probe the effect of acquired experience about physical laws of gravitation on performance differences of 44 participants under a simulated gravity and an atypical (upward) antigravity condition. Performance measured by the unsigned difference between instantaneous eye and stimulus positions (RMSE) was consistently worse in the antigravity condition. In the vertical RMSE, participants took about 200 ms longer to improve to the best performance for antigravity compared to gravity trials. The antigravity condition produced a divergence of individual performance which was correlated with levels of questionnaire-based quantified traits of schizotypy but not control traits. Grouping participants by high or low traits revealed a negative relationship between schizotypy trait level and both initiation and maintenance of tracking, a result consistent with trait-related impoverished sensory prediction. The findings confirm for the first time that where cues enabling exact estimation of acceleration are unavailable, knowledge of gravity contributes to dynamic prediction improving motion processing. With acceleration expectations violated, we demonstrate that antigravity tracking could act as a multivariate diagnostic window into predictive brain function.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andrew Isaac Meso
- Neuroimaging Department, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King's College London, London, UK.,Institut de Neuroscience de la Timone, Team Invibe, CNRS & Aix-Marseille Université, Marseille, 13005, France.,Psychology & Interdisciplinary Neuroscience Group, Bournemouth University, Poole, UK
| | - Robert L De Vai
- Psychology & Interdisciplinary Neuroscience Group, Bournemouth University, Poole, UK
| | - Ashakee Mahabeer
- Psychology & Interdisciplinary Neuroscience Group, Bournemouth University, Poole, UK
| | - Peter J Hills
- Psychology & Interdisciplinary Neuroscience Group, Bournemouth University, Poole, UK
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248
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Montagnese M, Leptourgos P, Fernyhough C, Waters F, Larøi F, Jardri R, McCarthy-Jones S, Thomas N, Dudley R, Taylor JP, Collerton D, Urwyler P. A Review of Multimodal Hallucinations: Categorization, Assessment, Theoretical Perspectives, and Clinical Recommendations. Schizophr Bull 2020; 47:237-248. [PMID: 32772114 PMCID: PMC7825001 DOI: 10.1093/schbul/sbaa101] [Citation(s) in RCA: 25] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/11/2022]
Abstract
Hallucinations can occur in different sensory modalities, both simultaneously and serially in time. They have typically been studied in clinical populations as phenomena occurring in a single sensory modality. Hallucinatory experiences occurring in multiple sensory systems-multimodal hallucinations (MMHs)-are more prevalent than previously thought and may have greater adverse impact than unimodal ones, but they remain relatively underresearched. Here, we review and discuss: (1) the definition and categorization of both serial and simultaneous MMHs, (2) available assessment tools and how they can be improved, and (3) the explanatory power that current hallucination theories have for MMHs. Overall, we suggest that current models need to be updated or developed to account for MMHs and to inform research into the underlying processes of such hallucinatory phenomena. We make recommendations for future research and for clinical practice, including the need for service user involvement and for better assessment tools that can reliably measure MMHs and distinguish them from other related phenomena.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marcella Montagnese
- Neuroimaging Department, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, Kings College London, London, UK
| | - Pantelis Leptourgos
- Department of Psychiatry, Connecticut Mental Health Center, Yale University, New Haven, CT
| | | | - Flavie Waters
- School of Psychological Sciences, The University of Western Australia, Perth, Australia
| | - Frank Larøi
- Department of Biological and Medical Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway,Psychology and Neuroscience of Cognition Research Unit, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium,Norwegian Center of Excellence for Mental Disorders Research, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
| | - Renaud Jardri
- University of Lille, INSERM U1172, CHU Lille, Centre Lille Neuroscience and Cognition, Lille, France,Laboratoire de Neurosciences Cognitives et Computationnelles, ENS, INSERM U960, PSL Research University, Paris, France
| | | | - Neil Thomas
- Centre for Mental Health, Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, Australia,The Alfred Hospital, Melbourne, Australia
| | - Rob Dudley
- Gateshead Early Intervention in Psychosis Service, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK,School of Psychology, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
| | - John-Paul Taylor
- Translational and Clinical Research Institute, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
| | - Daniel Collerton
- School of Psychology, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
| | - Prabitha Urwyler
- Translational and Clinical Research Institute, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK,Gerontechnology and Rehabilitation, ARTORG Center for Biomedical Engineering, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland,Department of Neurology, University Neurorehabilitation Unit, University Hospital Bern—Inselspital, Bern, Switzerland,To whom correspondence should be addressed; tel: +41 31 632 76 07, fax: +41 31 632 75 76, e-mail:
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249
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Larsen KM, Dzafic I, Darke H, Pertile H, Carter O, Sundram S, Garrido MI. Aberrant connectivity in auditory precision encoding in schizophrenia spectrum disorder and across the continuum of psychotic-like experiences. Schizophr Res 2020; 222:185-194. [PMID: 32593736 DOI: 10.1016/j.schres.2020.05.061] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/19/2020] [Revised: 05/11/2020] [Accepted: 05/27/2020] [Indexed: 11/24/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND The ability to generate a precise internal model of statistical regularities is impaired in schizophrenia. Predictive coding accounts of schizophrenia suggest that psychotic symptoms may be explained by a failure to build precise beliefs or a model of the world. The precision of this model may vary with context. For example, in a noisy environment the model will be more imprecise compared to a model built in an environment with lower noise. However compelling, this idea has not yet been empirically studied in schizophrenia. METHODS In this study, 62 participants engaged in a stochastic mismatch negativity paradigm with high and low precision. We included inpatients with a schizophrenia spectrum disorder (N = 20), inpatients with a psychiatric disorder but without psychosis (N = 20), and healthy controls (N = 22), with comparable sex ratio and age distribution. Bayesian mapping and dynamic causal modelling were employed to investigate the underlying microcircuitry of precision encoding of auditory stimuli. RESULTS We found strong evidence (exceedance P > 0.99) for differences in the underlying connectivity associated with precision encoding between the three groups as well as on the continuum of psychotic-like experiences assessed across all participants. Critically, we show changes in interhemispheric connectivity between the two inpatient groups, with some connections further aligning on the continuum of psychotic-like experiences. CONCLUSIONS While our results suggest continuity in backward connectivity alterations with psychotic-like experiences regardless of diagnosis, they also point to specificity for the schizophrenia spectrum disorder group in interhemispheric connectivity alterations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kit Melissa Larsen
- Queensland Brain Institute, The University of Queensland, Australia; Australian Research Council of Excellence for Integrative Brain Function, Australia; Danish Research Centre for Magnetic Resonance, Centre for Functional and Diagnostic Imaging and Research, Copenhagen University Hospital Hvidovre, Hvidovre, Denmark; Child and Adolescent Mental Health Centre, Mental Health Services Capital Region Copenhagen, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.
| | - Ilvana Dzafic
- Queensland Brain Institute, The University of Queensland, Australia; Australian Research Council of Excellence for Integrative Brain Function, Australia; Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences, University of Melbourne, Australia
| | - Hayley Darke
- Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences, University of Melbourne, Australia
| | - Holly Pertile
- Department of Psychiatry, School of Clinical Sciences, Monash University, Clayton, VIC, Australia; Monash Medical Centre, Monash Health, Clayton, VIC, Australia
| | - Olivia Carter
- Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences, University of Melbourne, Australia
| | - Suresh Sundram
- Department of Psychiatry, School of Clinical Sciences, Monash University, Clayton, VIC, Australia; Monash Medical Centre, Monash Health, Clayton, VIC, Australia
| | - Marta I Garrido
- Queensland Brain Institute, The University of Queensland, Australia; Australian Research Council of Excellence for Integrative Brain Function, Australia; Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences, University of Melbourne, Australia; Centre for Advanced Imaging, The University of Queensland, Australia
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Waltz JA, Wilson RC, Albrecht MA, Frank MJ, Gold JM. Differential Effects of Psychotic Illness on Directed and Random Exploration. COMPUTATIONAL PSYCHIATRY (CAMBRIDGE, MASS.) 2020; 4:18-39. [PMID: 33768158 PMCID: PMC7990386 DOI: 10.1162/cpsy_a_00027] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/13/2019] [Accepted: 04/27/2020] [Indexed: 12/25/2022]
Abstract
Schizophrenia is associated with a number of deficits in decision-making, but the scope, nature, and cause of these deficits are not completely understood. Here we focus on a particular type of decision, known as the explore/exploit dilemma, in which people must choose between exploiting options that yield relatively known rewards and exploring more ambiguous options of uncertain reward probability or magnitude. Previous work has shown that healthy people use two distinct strategies to decide when to explore: directed exploration, which involves choosing options that would reduce uncertainty about the reward values (information seeking), and random exploration (exploring by chance), which describes behavioral variability that is not goal directed. We administered a recently developed gambling task designed to quantify both directed and random exploration to 108 patients with schizophrenia (PSZ) and 33 healthy volunteers (HVs). We found that PSZ patients show reduced directed exploration relative to HVs, but no difference in random exploration. Moreover, patients' directed exploration behavior clusters into two qualitatively different behavioral phenotypes. In the first phenotype, which accounts for the majority of the patients (79%) and is consistent with previously reported behavior, directed exploration is only marginally (but significantly) reduced, suggesting that these patients can use directed exploration, but at a slightly lower level than community controls. In contrast, the second phenotype, comprising 21% of patients, exhibit a form of "extreme ambiguity aversion," in which they almost never choose more informative options, even when they are clearly of higher value. Moreover, in PSZ, deficits in directed exploration were related to measures of intellectual function, whereas random exploration was related to positive symptoms. Taken together, our results suggest that schizophrenia has differential effects on directed and random exploration and that investigating the explore/exploit dilemma in psychosis patients may reveal subgroups of patients with qualitatively different patterns of exploration.
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Affiliation(s)
- James A. Waltz
- Maryland Psychiatric Research Center, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, USA
| | - Robert C. Wilson
- Department of Psychology and Cognitive Science Program, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, USA
| | - Matthew A. Albrecht
- Maryland Psychiatric Research Center, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, USA
- School of Public Health, Curtin Health Innovation Research Institute, Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia, Australia
| | - Michael J. Frank
- Department of Cognitive, Linguistic, and Psychological Sciences, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, USA
- Department of Psychiatry and Brown Institute for Brain Science, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, USA
| | - James M. Gold
- Maryland Psychiatric Research Center, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, USA
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