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Li H, Zhang W, Song H, Zhuo L, Yao H, Sun H, Liu R, Feng R, Tang C, Lui S. Altered temporal lobe connectivity is associated with psychotic symptoms in drug-naïve adolescent patients with first-episode schizophrenia. Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry 2024:10.1007/s00787-024-02485-9. [PMID: 38832962 DOI: 10.1007/s00787-024-02485-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/03/2024] [Accepted: 05/23/2024] [Indexed: 06/06/2024]
Abstract
Research on individuals with a younger onset age of schizophrenia is important for identifying neurobiological processes derived from the interaction of genes and the environment that lead to the manifestation of schizophrenia. Schizophrenia has long been recognized as a disorder of dysconnectivity, but it is largely unknown how brain connectivity changes are associated with psychotic symptoms. Twenty-one adolescent-onset schizophrenia (AOS) patients and 21 matched healthy controls (HCs) were recruited and underwent resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging. Regional homogeneity (ReHo) was used to investigate local brain connectivity alterations in AOS. Regions with significant ReHo changes in patients were selected as "seeds" for further functional connectivity (FC) analysis and Granger causality analysis (GCA), and associations of the obtained functional brain measures with psychotic symptoms in patients with AOS were examined. Compared with HCs, AOS patients showed significantly increased ReHo in the right middle temporal gyrus (MTG), which was positively correlated with PANSS-positive scores, PSYRATS-delusion scores and auditory hallucination scores. With the MTG as the seed, lower connectivity with the bilateral postcentral gyrus (PCG) and higher connectivity with the right precuneus were observed in patients. The reduced FC between the right MTG and bilateral PCG was significantly and positively correlated with hallucination scores. GCA indicated decreased Granger causality from the right MTG to the left middle frontal gyrus (MFG) and from the right MFG to the right MTG in AOS patients, but such effects did not significantly associate with psychotic symptoms. Abnormalities in the connectivity within the MTG and its connectivity with other networks were identified and were significantly correlated with hallucination and delusion ratings. This region may be a key neural substrate of psychotic symptoms in AOS.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hongwei Li
- Department of Radiology, and Functional and Molecular Imaging Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, No. 37 Guoxue Xiang, Chengdu, 610041, China
- Huaxi MR Research Center (HMRRC), West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China
- Research Unit of Psychoradiology, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Chengdu, China
- Department of Radiology, The Third Hospital of Mianyang/Sichuan Mental Health Center, Mianyang, China
| | - Wenjing Zhang
- Department of Radiology, and Functional and Molecular Imaging Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, No. 37 Guoxue Xiang, Chengdu, 610041, China
- Huaxi MR Research Center (HMRRC), West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China
- Research Unit of Psychoradiology, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Chengdu, China
| | - Hui Song
- Department of Psychiatry, The Third Hospital of Mianyang/Sichuan Mental Health Center, Mianyang, China
| | - Lihua Zhuo
- Department of Radiology, The Third Hospital of Mianyang/Sichuan Mental Health Center, Mianyang, China
| | - Hongchao Yao
- Department of Radiology, The Third Hospital of Mianyang/Sichuan Mental Health Center, Mianyang, China
| | - Hui Sun
- Department of Radiology, and Functional and Molecular Imaging Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, No. 37 Guoxue Xiang, Chengdu, 610041, China
- Huaxi MR Research Center (HMRRC), West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China
- Research Unit of Psychoradiology, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Chengdu, China
| | - Ruishan Liu
- Department of Radiology, The Third Hospital of Mianyang/Sichuan Mental Health Center, Mianyang, China
| | - Ruohan Feng
- Department of Radiology, The Third Hospital of Mianyang/Sichuan Mental Health Center, Mianyang, China
| | - Chungen Tang
- Department of Radiology, The Third Hospital of Mianyang/Sichuan Mental Health Center, Mianyang, China
| | - Su Lui
- Department of Radiology, and Functional and Molecular Imaging Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, No. 37 Guoxue Xiang, Chengdu, 610041, China.
- Huaxi MR Research Center (HMRRC), West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China.
- Research Unit of Psychoradiology, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Chengdu, China.
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2
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Albert L, Potheegadoo J, Herbelin B, Bernasconi F, Blanke O. Numerosity estimation of virtual humans as a digital-robotic marker for hallucinations in Parkinson's disease. Nat Commun 2024; 15:1905. [PMID: 38472203 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-45912-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/01/2023] [Accepted: 02/07/2024] [Indexed: 03/14/2024] Open
Abstract
Hallucinations are frequent non-motor symptoms in Parkinson's disease (PD) associated with dementia and higher mortality. Despite their high clinical relevance, current assessments of hallucinations are based on verbal self-reports and interviews that are limited by important biases. Here, we used virtual reality (VR), robotics, and digital online technology to quantify presence hallucination (vivid sensations that another person is nearby when no one is actually present and can neither be seen nor heard) in laboratory and home-based settings. We establish that elevated numerosity estimation of virtual human agents in VR is a digital marker for experimentally induced presence hallucinations in healthy participants, as confirmed across several control conditions and analyses. We translated the digital marker (numerosity estimation) to an online procedure that 170 PD patients carried out remotely at their homes, revealing that PD patients with disease-related presence hallucinations (but not control PD patients) showed higher numerosity estimation. Numerosity estimation enables quantitative monitoring of hallucinations, is an easy-to-use unobtrusive online method, reaching people far away from medical centers, translating neuroscientific findings using robotics and VR, to patients' homes without specific equipment or trained staff.
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Affiliation(s)
- Louis Albert
- Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience, Neuro-X Institute, Faculty of Life Sciences, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL), Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Jevita Potheegadoo
- Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience, Neuro-X Institute, Faculty of Life Sciences, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL), Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Bruno Herbelin
- Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience, Neuro-X Institute, Faculty of Life Sciences, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL), Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Fosco Bernasconi
- Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience, Neuro-X Institute, Faculty of Life Sciences, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL), Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Olaf Blanke
- Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience, Neuro-X Institute, Faculty of Life Sciences, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL), Geneva, Switzerland.
- Department of Clinical Neurosciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland.
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Orepic P, Bernasconi F, Faggella M, Faivre N, Blanke O. Robotically-induced auditory-verbal hallucinations: combining self-monitoring and strong perceptual priors. Psychol Med 2024; 54:569-581. [PMID: 37779256 DOI: 10.1017/s0033291723002222] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/03/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Inducing hallucinations under controlled experimental conditions in non-hallucinating individuals represents a novel research avenue oriented toward understanding complex hallucinatory phenomena, avoiding confounds observed in patients. Auditory-verbal hallucinations (AVH) are one of the most common and distressing psychotic symptoms, whose etiology remains largely unknown. Two prominent accounts portray AVH either as a deficit in auditory-verbal self-monitoring, or as a result of overly strong perceptual priors. METHODS In order to test both theoretical models and evaluate their potential integration, we developed a robotic procedure able to induce self-monitoring perturbations (consisting of sensorimotor conflicts between poking movements and corresponding tactile feedback) and a perceptual prior associated with otherness sensations (i.e. feeling the presence of a non-existing another person). RESULTS Here, in two independent studies, we show that this robotic procedure led to AVH-like phenomena in healthy individuals, quantified as an increase in false alarm rate in a voice detection task. Robotically-induced AVH-like sensations were further associated with delusional ideation and to both AVH accounts. Specifically, a condition with stronger sensorimotor conflicts induced more AVH-like sensations (self-monitoring), while, in the otherness-related experimental condition, there were more AVH-like sensations when participants were detecting other-voice stimuli, compared to detecting self-voice stimuli (strong-priors). CONCLUSIONS By demonstrating an experimental procedure able to induce AVH-like sensations in non-hallucinating individuals, we shed new light on AVH phenomenology, thereby integrating self-monitoring and strong-priors accounts.
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Affiliation(s)
- Pavo Orepic
- Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience, Neuro-X Institute & Brain Mind Institute, School of Life Sciences, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Fosco Bernasconi
- Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience, Neuro-X Institute & Brain Mind Institute, School of Life Sciences, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Melissa Faggella
- Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience, Neuro-X Institute & Brain Mind Institute, School of Life Sciences, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Nathan Faivre
- University Grenoble Alpes, University Savoie Mont Blanc, CNRS, LPNC, 38000 Grenoble, France
| | - Olaf Blanke
- Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience, Neuro-X Institute & Brain Mind Institute, School of Life Sciences, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Geneva, Switzerland
- Department of Clinical Neurosciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
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Montobbio N, Zingarelli E, Folesani F, Memeo M, Croce E, Cavallo A, Grassi L, Fadiga L, Panzeri S, Belvederi Murri M, Becchio C. Action prediction in psychosis. SCHIZOPHRENIA (HEIDELBERG, GERMANY) 2024; 10:8. [PMID: 38200038 PMCID: PMC10851700 DOI: 10.1038/s41537-023-00429-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/30/2023] [Accepted: 12/22/2023] [Indexed: 01/12/2024]
Abstract
Aberrant motor-sensory predictive functions have been linked to symptoms of psychosis, particularly reduced attenuation of self-generated sensations and misattribution of self-generated actions. Building on the parallels between prediction of self- and other-generated actions, this study aims to investigate whether individuals with psychosis also demonstrate abnormal perceptions and predictions of others' actions. Patients with psychosis and matched controls completed a two-alternative object size discrimination task. In each trial, they observed reaching actions towards a small and a large object, with varying levels of temporal occlusion ranging from 10% to 80% of movement duration. Their task was to predict the size of the object that would be grasped. We employed a novel analytic approach to examine how object size information was encoded and read out across progressive levels of occlusion with single-trial resolution. Patients with psychosis exhibited an overall pattern of reduced and discontinuous evidence integration relative to controls, characterized by a period of null integration up to 20% of movement duration, during which they did not read any size information. Surprisingly, this drop in accuracy in the initial integration period was not accompanied by a reduction in confidence. Difficulties in action prediction were correlated with the severity of negative symptoms and impaired functioning in social relationships.
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Affiliation(s)
- Noemi Montobbio
- Center for Human Technologies, Fondazione Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Via Enrico Melen 83, 16152, Genoa, Italy
- Department of Health Sciences (DISSAL), University of Genoa, Via A. Pastore 1, 16132, Genoa, Italy
| | - Enrico Zingarelli
- Center for Human Technologies, Fondazione Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Via Enrico Melen 83, 16152, Genoa, Italy
| | - Federica Folesani
- Institute of Psychiatry, Department of Neuroscience and Rehabilitation, University of Ferrara, Via Fossato di Mortara 64, 44121, Ferrara, Italy
| | - Mariacarla Memeo
- Center for Human Technologies, Fondazione Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Via Enrico Melen 83, 16152, Genoa, Italy
| | - Enrico Croce
- Institute of Psychiatry, Department of Neuroscience and Rehabilitation, University of Ferrara, Via Fossato di Mortara 64, 44121, Ferrara, Italy
| | - Andrea Cavallo
- Center for Human Technologies, Fondazione Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Via Enrico Melen 83, 16152, Genoa, Italy
- Dipartimento di Psicologia, Università di Torino, Via Giuseppe Verdi, 10, 10124, Torino, Italy
| | - Luigi Grassi
- Institute of Psychiatry, Department of Neuroscience and Rehabilitation, University of Ferrara, Via Fossato di Mortara 64, 44121, Ferrara, Italy
| | - Luciano Fadiga
- Center for Translational Neurophysiology, Fondazione Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Via Fossato di Mortara 19, 44121, Ferrara, Italy
- Section of Physiology, Department of Neuroscience and Rehabilitation, University of Ferrara, Via Fossato di Mortara 19, 44121, Ferrara, Italy
| | - Stefano Panzeri
- Institute of Neural Information Processing, Center for Molecular Neurobiology (ZMNH), University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE), Falkenried 94, 20251, Hamburg, Germany
| | - Martino Belvederi Murri
- Institute of Psychiatry, Department of Neuroscience and Rehabilitation, University of Ferrara, Via Fossato di Mortara 64, 44121, Ferrara, Italy
| | - Cristina Becchio
- Center for Human Technologies, Fondazione Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Via Enrico Melen 83, 16152, Genoa, Italy.
- Department of Neurology, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE), Martinistraße 52, 20246, Hamburg, Germany.
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Damiani S, Cavicchioli M, Guiot C, Donadeo A, Scalabrini A, Grecuzzo V, Bergamaschini I, Provenzani U, Politi P, Fusar-Poli P. The noise in our brain: A systematic review and meta-analysis of neuroimaging and signal-detection studies on source monitoring in psychosis. J Psychiatr Res 2024; 169:142-151. [PMID: 38039688 DOI: 10.1016/j.jpsychires.2023.11.036] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/25/2023] [Revised: 10/09/2023] [Accepted: 11/20/2023] [Indexed: 12/03/2023]
Abstract
OBJECTIVES Noisy thoughts or perceptions are characteristics of psychosis (PSY) and, they are deeply related to source monitoring (SM) - the ability to discriminate the origin of internal/external experiences. METHODS This MOOSE, PRISMA-compliant meta-analysis compared SM performances in PSY compared to healthy controls (HC) focusing on signal-to-noise discrimination in order to: i) test whether neuroimaging procedures (fMRI/EEG) might be a group-specific source of noise for SM; ii) compare error- and accuracy-based indexes; iii) to meta-analyze signal-detection measures (i.e., discrimination index and response bias); iv) to determine the best index capturing SM deficits in psychosis. We conducted a 3-level meta-analysis for each aim to estimate pooled effect-sizes (Cohen's d). SM type, source discrimination and stimulus modality were used as meta-regressors. Heterogeneity (I2), publication bias (Egger's test) and multiple comparisons (Bonferroni correction) were considered. RESULTS Sixteen neuroimaging, 44 error/accuracy-based behavioral and 7 signal-detection trials were included (2297 PSY, age range = 18.78-52.6; 1745 HC, age range = 21.1-53.3). The noise generated by neuroimaging procedures slightly influenced error, but not accuracy. Accuracy-based (d = -0.83), but not error-based, indexes showed significant and large SM impairments in PSY compared to HC. Overall SM performance differences between PSY and HC were larger in discrimination index (d = -0.65) and accuracy (d = -0.61), followed by response bias (d = -0.59, ns) and error-based (d = 0.35) indexes. CONCLUSION Although both accuracy and discrimination indexes differentiate patients with PSY from HC, discrimination index is more reliable and may better capture the bi-directional nature of the internal/external source confusion.
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Affiliation(s)
- Stefano Damiani
- University of Pavia, Department of Brain and Behavioral Sciences, Italy.
| | - Marco Cavicchioli
- University Vita-Salute San Raffaele, Department of Psychology, Italy
| | - Cecilia Guiot
- University of Pavia, Department of Brain and Behavioral Sciences, Italy
| | - Alberto Donadeo
- University of Pavia, Department of Brain and Behavioral Sciences, Italy
| | - Andrea Scalabrini
- University of Bergamo, Department of Human and Social Science, Italy
| | | | | | | | - Pierluigi Politi
- University of Pavia, Department of Brain and Behavioral Sciences, Italy
| | - Paolo Fusar-Poli
- University of Pavia, Department of Brain and Behavioral Sciences, Italy; Early Psychosis: Interventions and Clinical-detection (EPIC) Lab, Department of Psychosis Studies, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King's College London, UK; OASIS Service, South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, London, UK
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6
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Harduf A, Panishev G, Harel EV, Stern Y, Salomon R. The bodily self from psychosis to psychedelics. Sci Rep 2023; 13:21209. [PMID: 38040825 PMCID: PMC10692325 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-47600-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/24/2023] [Accepted: 11/16/2023] [Indexed: 12/03/2023] Open
Abstract
The sense of self is a foundational element of neurotypical human consciousness. We normally experience the world as embodied agents, with the unified sensation of our selfhood being nested in our body. Critically, the sense of self can be altered in psychiatric conditions such as psychosis and altered states of consciousness induced by psychedelic compounds. The similarity of phenomenological effects across psychosis and psychedelic experiences has given rise to the "psychotomimetic" theory suggesting that psychedelics simulate psychosis-like states. Moreover, psychedelic-induced changes in the sense of self have been related to reported improvements in mental health. Here we investigated the bodily self in psychedelic, psychiatric, and control populations. Using the Moving Rubber Hand Illusion, we tested (N = 75) patients with psychosis, participants with a history of substantial psychedelic experiences, and control participants to see how psychedelic and psychiatric experience impacts the bodily self. Results revealed that psychosis patients had reduced Body Ownership and Sense of Agency during volitional action. The psychedelic group reported subjective long-lasting changes to the sense of self, but no differences between control and psychedelic participants were found. Our results suggest that while psychedelics induce both acute and enduring subjective changes in the sense of self, these are not manifested at the level of the bodily self. Furthermore, our data show that bodily self-processing, related to volitional action, is disrupted in psychosis patients. We discuss these findings in relation to anomalous self-processing across psychedelic and psychotic experiences.
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Affiliation(s)
- Amir Harduf
- The Multidisciplinary Brain Research Center, Bar-Ilan University, 5290002, Ramat-Gan, Israel
- The Faculty of Life Sciences, Bar-Ilan University, 5290002, Ramat-Gan, Israel
| | - Gabriella Panishev
- The Multidisciplinary Brain Research Center, Bar-Ilan University, 5290002, Ramat-Gan, Israel
| | - Eiran V Harel
- Beer Yaakov-Ness Ziona Mental Health Center, Beer Yaakov, Israel
| | - Yonatan Stern
- The Multidisciplinary Brain Research Center, Bar-Ilan University, 5290002, Ramat-Gan, Israel
- Department of Cognitive Sciences, University of Haifa, 3498838, Haifa, Israel
| | - Roy Salomon
- Department of Cognitive Sciences, University of Haifa, 3498838, Haifa, Israel.
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Marchesotti S, Bernasconi F, Rognini G, De Lucia M, Bleuler H, Blanke O. Neural signatures of visuo-motor integration during human-robot interactions. Front Neurorobot 2023; 16:1034615. [PMID: 36776553 PMCID: PMC9908758 DOI: 10.3389/fnbot.2022.1034615] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/01/2022] [Accepted: 11/23/2022] [Indexed: 01/28/2023] Open
Abstract
Visuo-motor integration shapes our daily experience and underpins the sense of feeling in control over our actions. The last decade has seen a surge in robotically and virtually mediated interactions, whereby bodily actions ultimately result in an artificial movement. But despite the growing number of applications, the neurophysiological correlates of visuo-motor processing during human-machine interactions under dynamic conditions remain scarce. Here we address this issue by employing a bimanual robotic interface able to track voluntary hands movement, rendered in real-time into the motion of two virtual hands. We experimentally manipulated the visual feedback in the virtual reality with spatial and temporal conflicts and investigated their impact on (1) visuo-motor integration and (2) the subjective experience of being the author of one's action (i.e., sense of agency). Using somatosensory evoked responses measured with electroencephalography, we investigated neural differences occurring when the integration between motor commands and visual feedback is disrupted. Our results show that the right posterior parietal cortex encodes for differences between congruent and spatially-incongruent interactions. The experimental manipulations also induced a decrease in the sense of agency over the robotically-mediated actions. These findings offer solid neurophysiological grounds that can be used in the future to monitor integration mechanisms during movements and ultimately enhance subjective experience during human-machine interactions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Silvia Marchesotti
- Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience, Center for Neuroprosthetics and Brain Mind Institute, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Geneva, Switzerland,Laboratory of Robotic Systems, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland,*Correspondence: Silvia Marchesotti
| | - Fosco Bernasconi
- Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience, Center for Neuroprosthetics and Brain Mind Institute, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Giulio Rognini
- Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience, Center for Neuroprosthetics and Brain Mind Institute, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Geneva, Switzerland,Laboratory of Robotic Systems, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Marzia De Lucia
- Laboratoire de Recherche en Neuroimagerie, University Hospital (CHUV) and University of Lausanne (UNIL), Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Hannes Bleuler
- Laboratory of Robotic Systems, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Olaf Blanke
- Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience, Center for Neuroprosthetics and Brain Mind Institute, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Geneva, Switzerland,Department of Clinical Neurosciences, Faculty of Medicine, University Hospital, Geneva, Switzerland,Olaf Blanke
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8
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Bernasconi F, Blondiaux E, Rognini G, Dhanis H, Jenni L, Potheegadoo J, Hara M, Blanke O. Neuroscience robotics for controlled induction and real-time assessment of hallucinations. Nat Protoc 2022; 17:2966-2989. [PMID: 36097181 DOI: 10.1038/s41596-022-00737-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/29/2021] [Accepted: 06/16/2022] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
Abstract
Although hallucinations are important and frequent symptoms in major psychiatric and neurological diseases, little is known about their brain mechanisms. Hallucinations are unpredictable and private experiences, making their investigation, quantification and assessment highly challenging. A major shortcoming in hallucination research is the absence of methods able to induce specific and short-lasting hallucinations, which resemble clinical hallucinations, can be elicited repeatedly and vary across experimental conditions. By integrating clinical observations and recent advances in cognitive neuroscience with robotics, we have designed a novel device and sensorimotor method able to repeatedly induce a specific, clinically relevant hallucination: presence hallucination. Presence hallucinations are induced by applying specific conflicting (spatiotemporal) sensorimotor stimulation including an upper extremity and the torso of the participant. Another, MRI-compatible, robotic device using similar sensorimotor stimulation permitted the identification of the brain mechanisms of these hallucinations. Enabling the identification of behavioral and a frontotemporal neural biomarkers of hallucinations, under fully controlled experimental conditions and in real-time, this method can be applied in healthy participants as well as patients with schizophrenia, neurodegenerative disease or other hallucinations. The execution of these protocols requires intermediate-level skills in cognitive neuroscience and MRI processing, as well as minimal coding experience to control the robotic device. These protocols take ~3 h to be completed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Fosco Bernasconi
- Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience, Center for Neuroprosthetics & Brain Mind Institute, Faculty of Life Sciences, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL), Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Eva Blondiaux
- Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience, Center for Neuroprosthetics & Brain Mind Institute, Faculty of Life Sciences, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL), Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Giulio Rognini
- Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience, Center for Neuroprosthetics & Brain Mind Institute, Faculty of Life Sciences, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL), Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Herberto Dhanis
- Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience, Center for Neuroprosthetics & Brain Mind Institute, Faculty of Life Sciences, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL), Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Laurent Jenni
- Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience, Center for Neuroprosthetics & Brain Mind Institute, Faculty of Life Sciences, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL), Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Jevita Potheegadoo
- Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience, Center for Neuroprosthetics & Brain Mind Institute, Faculty of Life Sciences, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL), Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Masayuki Hara
- Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Saitama University, Saitama, Japan
| | - Olaf Blanke
- Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience, Center for Neuroprosthetics & Brain Mind Institute, Faculty of Life Sciences, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL), Geneva, Switzerland.
- Department of Clinical Neurosciences, Geneva University Hospital, Geneva, Switzerland.
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9
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Krugwasser AR, Stern Y, Faivre N, Harel EV, Salomon R. Impaired sense of agency and associated confidence in psychosis. SCHIZOPHRENIA 2022; 8:32. [PMID: 35854004 PMCID: PMC9261084 DOI: 10.1038/s41537-022-00212-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/29/2021] [Accepted: 02/02/2022] [Indexed: 11/24/2022]
Abstract
The Sense of Agency (SoA), our sensation of control over our actions, is a fundamental mechanism for delineating the Self from the environment and others. SoA arises from implicit processing of sensorimotor signals as well as explicit higher-level judgments. Psychosis patients suffer from difficulties in the sense of control over their actions and accurate demarcation of the Self. Moreover, it is unclear if they have metacognitive insight into their aberrant abilities. In this pre-registered study, we examined SoA and its associated confidence judgments using an embodied virtual reality paradigm in psychosis patients and controls. Our results show that psychosis patients not only have a severely reduced ability for discriminating their actions but they also do not show proper metacognitive insight into this deficit. Furthermore, an exploratory analysis revealed that the SoA capacities allow for high levels of accuracy in clinical classification of psychosis. These results indicate that SoA and its metacognition are core aspects of the psychotic state and provide possible venues for understanding the underlying mechanisms of psychosis, that may be leveraged for novel clinical purposes.
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10
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Ciaunica A, Seth A, Limanowski J, Hesp C, Friston KJ. I overthink-Therefore I am not: An active inference account of altered sense of self and agency in depersonalisation disorder. Conscious Cogn 2022; 101:103320. [PMID: 35490544 PMCID: PMC9130736 DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2022.103320] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/22/2021] [Revised: 03/27/2022] [Accepted: 03/29/2022] [Indexed: 12/17/2022]
Abstract
This paper considers the phenomenology of depersonalisation disorder, in relation to predictive processing and its associated pathophysiology. To do this, we first establish a few mechanistic tenets of predictive processing that are necessary to talk about phenomenal transparency, mental action, and self as subject. We briefly review the important role of 'predicting precision' and how this affords mental action and the loss of phenomenal transparency. We then turn to sensory attenuation and the phenomenal consequences of (pathophysiological) failures to attenuate or modulate sensory precision. We then consider this failure in the context of depersonalisation disorder. The key idea here is that depersonalisation disorder reflects the remarkable capacity to explain perceptual engagement with the world via the hypothesis that "I am an embodied perceiver, but I am not in control of my perception". We suggest that individuals with depersonalisation may believe that 'another agent' is controlling their thoughts, perceptions or actions, while maintaining full insight that the 'other agent' is 'me' (the self). Finally, we rehearse the predictions of this formal analysis, with a special focus on the psychophysical and physiological abnormalities that may underwrite the phenomenology of depersonalisation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anna Ciaunica
- Centre for Philosophy of Science, University of Lisbon, Campo Grande, 1749-016 Lisbon, Portugal; Institute of Philosophy, University of Porto, via Panoramica s/n 4150-564, Porto, Portugal; Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, WC1N 3AR London, UK.
| | - Anil Seth
- Sackler Centre for Consciousness Science and School of Engineering and Informatics, University of Sussex, Brighton BN1 9QJ, UK; Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR) Program on Brain, Mind, and Consciousness, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
| | - Jakub Limanowski
- Lifespan and Developmental Neuroscience, Faculty of Psychology, Technical University Dresden, 01069 Dresden, Germany; Centre for Tactile Internet with Human-in-the-Loop CeTI - Cluster of Excellence, Technical University Dresden, 01062 Dresden, Germany
| | - Casper Hesp
- Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging, University College London, WC1N 3AR London, UK; Department of Developmental Psychology, University of Amsterdam, Science Park 904, 1098 XH Amsterdam, Netherlands; Amsterdam Brain and Cognition Centre, University of Amsterdam, Science Park 904, 1098 XH Amsterdam, Netherlands; Institute for Advanced Study, University of Amsterdam, Oude Turfmarkt 147, 1012 GC Amsterdam, Netherlands
| | - Karl J Friston
- Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging, University College London, WC1N 3AR London, UK
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11
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Xie Y, He Y, Guan M, Zhou G, Wang Z, Ma Z, Wang H, Yin H. Impact of low-frequency rTMS on functional connectivity of the dentate nucleus subdomains in schizophrenia patients with auditory verbal hallucination. J Psychiatr Res 2022; 149:87-96. [PMID: 35259665 DOI: 10.1016/j.jpsychires.2022.02.030] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/26/2021] [Revised: 02/07/2022] [Accepted: 02/28/2022] [Indexed: 01/10/2023]
Abstract
Despite low-frequency repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) is effective in treating schizophrenia patients with auditory verbal hallucinations (AVH), the underlying neural mechanisms of the effect still need to be clarified. Using the cerebellar dentate nucleus (DN) subdomain (dorsal and versal DN) as seeds, the present study investigated resting state functional connectivity (FC) alternations of the seeds with the whole brain and their associations with clinical responses in schizophrenia patients with AVH receiving 1 Hz rTMS treatment. The results showed that the rTMS treatment improved the psychiatric symptoms (e.g., AVH and positive symptoms) and certain neurocognitive functions (e.g., visual learning and verbal learning) in the patients. In addition, the patients at baseline showed increased FC between the DN subdomains and temporal lobes (e.g., right superior temporal gyrus and right middle temporal gyrus) and decreased FC between the DN subdomains and the left superior frontal gyrus, right postcentral gyrus, left supramarginal gyrus and regional cerebellum (e.g., lobule 4-5) compared to controls. Furthermore, these abnormal DN subdomain connectivity patterns did not persist and decreased FC of DN subdomains with cerebellum lobule 4-5 were reversed in patients after rTMS treatment. Linear regression analysis showed that the FC difference values of DN subdomains with the temporal lobes, supramarginal gyrus and cerebellum 4-5 between the patients at baseline and posttreatment were associated with clinical improvements (e.g., AVH and verbal learning) after rTMS treatment. The results suggested that rTMS treatment may modulate the neural circuits of the DN subdomains and hint to underlying neural mechanisms for low-frequency rTMS treating schizophrenia with AVH.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yuanjun Xie
- School of Education, Xinyang College, Xinyang, China; Department of Radiology, Xijing Hospital, Fourth Military Medical University, Xi'an, China.
| | - Ying He
- Department of Psychiatry, Second Affiliated Hospital, Army Medical University, Chongqing, China
| | - Muzhen Guan
- Department of Mental Health, Xi'an Medical University, Xi'an, China
| | | | - Zhongheng Wang
- Department of Psychiatry, Xijing Hospital, Fourth Military Medical University, Xi'an, China
| | - Zhujing Ma
- Department of Military Psychology, School of Psychology, Fourth Military Medical University, Xi'an, China
| | - Huaning Wang
- Department of Psychiatry, Xijing Hospital, Fourth Military Medical University, Xi'an, China.
| | - Hong Yin
- Department of Radiology, Xijing Hospital, Fourth Military Medical University, Xi'an, China.
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12
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Salomon R, Kannape OA, Debarba HG, Kaliuzhna M, Schneider M, Faivre N, Eliez S, Blanke O. Agency Deficits in a Human Genetic Model of Schizophrenia: Insights From 22q11DS Patients. Schizophr Bull 2022; 48:495-504. [PMID: 34935960 PMCID: PMC8886583 DOI: 10.1093/schbul/sbab143] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/23/2022]
Abstract
Schizophrenia is a chronic and disabling mental illness characterized by a disordered sense of self. Current theories suggest that deficiencies in the sense of control over one's actions (Sense of Agency, SoA) may underlie some of the symptoms of schizophrenia. However, it is not clear if agency deficits are a precursor or a result of psychosis. Here, we investigated full body agency using virtual reality in a cohort of 22q11 deletion syndrome participants with a genetic propensity for schizophrenia. In two experiments employing virtual reality, full body motion tracking, and online feedback, we investigated SoA in two separate domains. Our results show that participants with 22q11DS had a considerable deficit in monitoring their actions, compared to age-matched controls in both the temporal and spatial domain. This was coupled with a bias toward erroneous attribution of actions to the self. These results indicate that nonpsychotic 22q11DS participants have a domain general deficit in the conscious sensorimotor mechanisms underlying the bodily self. Our data reveal an abnormality in the SoA in a cohort with a genetic predisposition for schizophrenia, but without psychosis, providing evidence that deficits in delineation of the self may be a precursor rather than a result of the psychotic state.
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Affiliation(s)
- Roy Salomon
- Gonda Multidisciplinary Brain Research Center, Bar Ilan University (BIU), Ramat-Gan, Israel
- Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience, Brain Mind Institute, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Oliver Alan Kannape
- Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience, Brain Mind Institute, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Henrique Galvan Debarba
- Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience, Brain Mind Institute, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland
- Department of Digital Design, IT University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
- Immersive Interaction Group, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Mariia Kaliuzhna
- Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience, Brain Mind Institute, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland
- Clinical and Experimental Psychopathology Group, Department of Psychiatry, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Maude Schneider
- Developmental Imaging and Psychopathology Laboratory, Department of Psychiatry, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
- Clinical Psychology Unit for Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Nathan Faivre
- Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience, Brain Mind Institute, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland
- Univ. Grenoble Alpes, Univ. Savoie Mont Blanc, CNRS, LPNC, Grenoble, France
| | - Stephan Eliez
- Developmental Imaging and Psychopathology Laboratory, Department of Psychiatry, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Olaf Blanke
- Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience, Brain Mind Institute, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland
- Department of Clinical Neurosciences, Faculty of Medicine, University Hospital, Geneva, Switzerland
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13
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Orepic P, Park HD, Rognini G, Faivre N, Blanke O. Breathing affects self-other voice discrimination in a bodily state associated with somatic passivity. Psychophysiology 2022; 59:e14016. [PMID: 35150452 PMCID: PMC9286416 DOI: 10.1111/psyp.14016] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/22/2021] [Revised: 07/08/2021] [Accepted: 12/24/2021] [Indexed: 01/03/2023]
Abstract
A growing number of studies have focused on identifying cognitive processes that are modulated by interoceptive signals, particularly in relation to the respiratory or cardiac cycle. Considering the fundamental role of interoception in bodily self‐consciousness, we here investigated whether interoceptive signals also impact self‐voice perception. We applied an interactive, robotic paradigm associated with somatic passivity (a bodily state characterized by illusory misattribution of self‐generated touches to someone else) to investigate whether somatic passivity impacts self‐voice perception as a function of concurrent interoceptive signals. Participants' breathing and heartbeat signals were recorded while they performed two self‐voice tasks (self‐other voice discrimination and loudness perception) and while simultaneously experiencing two robotic conditions (somatic passivity condition; control condition). Our data reveal that respiration, but not cardiac activity, affects self‐voice perception: participants were better at discriminating self‐voice from another person’s voice during the inspiration phase of the respiration cycle. Moreover, breathing effects were prominent in participants experiencing somatic passivity and a different task with the same stimuli (i.e., judging the loudness and not identity of the voices) was unaffected by breathing. Combining interoception and voice perception with self‐monitoring framework, these data extend findings on breathing‐dependent changes in perception and cognition to self‐related processing. Impact StatementThe contents of this page will be shown on the eTOC on the online version only. It will not be published as part of the article PDF. We combined psychophysics with robotics and voice‐morphing technology to evaluate the effect of breathing on self‐voice perception. Our results show that listeners better perceive their own voice during inspiration, an effect that is modulated by self‐related bodily processing. This extends previous findings documenting the effect of interoceptive signals on perception and suggests that the bodily self may serve as a scaffold for cognition.
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Affiliation(s)
- Pavo Orepic
- Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience, Center for Neuroprosthetics and Brain Mind Institute, Faculty of Life Sciences, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Hyeong-Dong Park
- Graduate Institute of Mind, Brain and Consciousness, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan.,Brain and Consciousness Research Centre, Shuang-Ho Hospital, New Taipei City, Taiwan
| | - Giulio Rognini
- Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience, Center for Neuroprosthetics and Brain Mind Institute, Faculty of Life Sciences, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Nathan Faivre
- Univ. Grenoble Alpes, Univ. Savoie Mont Blanc, CNRS, LPNC, Grenoble, France
| | - Olaf Blanke
- Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience, Center for Neuroprosthetics and Brain Mind Institute, Faculty of Life Sciences, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland.,Faculty of Medicine, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
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14
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Ulmer-Yaniv A, Waidergoren S, Shaked A, Salomon R, Feldman R. Neural Representation of the Parent-Child Attachment from Infancy to Adulthood. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci 2021; 17:609-624. [PMID: 34893911 PMCID: PMC9250301 DOI: 10.1093/scan/nsab132] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/04/2021] [Revised: 09/23/2021] [Accepted: 12/09/2021] [Indexed: 01/10/2023] Open
Abstract
Attachment theory is built on the assumption of consistency; the mother–infant bond is thought to underpin the life-long representations individuals construct of attachment relationships. Still, consistency in the individual’s neural response to attachment-related stimuli representing his or her entire relational history has not been investigated. Mothers and children were followed across two decades and videotaped in infancy (3–6 months), childhood (9–12 years) and young adulthood (18–24 years). In adulthood, participants underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging while exposed to videos of own mother–child interactions (Self) vs unfamiliar interactions (Other). Self-stimuli elicited greater activations across preregistered nodes of the human attachment network, including thalamus-to-brainstem, amygdala, hippocampus, anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), insula and temporal cortex. Critically, self-stimuli were age-invariant in most regions of interest despite large variability in social behavior, and Bayesian analysis showed strong evidence for lack of age-related differences. Psycho–physiological interaction analysis indicated that self-stimuli elicited tighter connectivity between ACC and anterior insula, consolidating an interface associating information from exteroceptive and interceptive sources to sustain attachment representations. Child social engagement behavior was individually stable from infancy to adulthood and linked with greater ACC and insula response to self-stimuli. Findings demonstrate overlap in circuits sustaining parental and child attachment and accord with perspectives on the continuity of attachment across human development.
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Affiliation(s)
- Adi Ulmer-Yaniv
- Center for Developmental Social Neuroscience, Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya, Herzliya 4610101, Israel
- Gonda Brain Research Center, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan 5290002, Israel
| | - Shani Waidergoren
- Center for Developmental Social Neuroscience, Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya, Herzliya 4610101, Israel
| | - Ariel Shaked
- Gonda Brain Research Center, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan 5290002, Israel
| | - Roy Salomon
- Gonda Brain Research Center, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan 5290002, Israel
| | - Ruth Feldman
- Correspondence should be addressed to Ruth Feldman Center for Developmental Social Neuroscience, Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya, 8 Ha'Universita st., Herzliya 4610101, Israel. E-mail:
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15
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Roel Lesur M, Bolt E, Saetta G, Lenggenhager B. The monologue of the double: Allocentric reduplication of the own voice alters bodily self-perception. Conscious Cogn 2021; 95:103223. [PMID: 34653785 DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2021.103223] [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: 09/23/2020] [Revised: 08/25/2021] [Accepted: 10/07/2021] [Indexed: 10/20/2022]
Abstract
During autoscopic phenomena, people perceive a double of themselves in extrapersonal space. Such clinical allocentric self-experiences sometimes co-occur with auditory hallucinations, yet experimental setups to induce similar illusions in healthy participants have generally neglected acoustic cues. We investigated whether feeling the presence of an auditory double could be provoked experimentally by recording healthy participants' own versus another person's voice and movements using binaural headphones from an egocentric (the participants' own) and an allocentric (a dummy head located elsewhere) perspective. When hearing themselves allocentrically, participants reported feeling a self-identified presence extracorporeally, an arguably distinct quality of autoscopy. Our results suggest that participants without hallucinatory experiences localized their own voice closer to themselves compared to that of another person. Explorative findings suggest that distinct patterns for hallucinators should be further investigated. This study suggests a successful induction of the feeling of an acoustic doppelganger, bridging clinical phenomena and experimental work.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marte Roel Lesur
- Department of Psychology, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
| | - Elena Bolt
- Department of Psychology, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Gianluca Saetta
- Department of Psychology, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
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16
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Schoeller F, Miller M, Salomon R, Friston KJ. Trust as Extended Control: Human-Machine Interactions as Active Inference. Front Syst Neurosci 2021; 15:669810. [PMID: 34720895 PMCID: PMC8548360 DOI: 10.3389/fnsys.2021.669810] [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: 02/19/2021] [Accepted: 08/16/2021] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
In order to interact seamlessly with robots, users must infer the causes of a robot's behavior-and be confident about that inference (and its predictions). Hence, trust is a necessary condition for human-robot collaboration (HRC). However, and despite its crucial role, it is still largely unknown how trust emerges, develops, and supports human relationship to technological systems. In the following paper we review the literature on trust, human-robot interaction, HRC, and human interaction at large. Early models of trust suggest that it is a trade-off between benevolence and competence; while studies of human to human interaction emphasize the role of shared behavior and mutual knowledge in the gradual building of trust. We go on to introduce a model of trust as an agent' best explanation for reliable sensory exchange with an extended motor plant or partner. This model is based on the cognitive neuroscience of active inference and suggests that, in the context of HRC, trust can be casted in terms of virtual control over an artificial agent. Interactive feedback is a necessary condition to the extension of the trustor's perception-action cycle. This model has important implications for understanding human-robot interaction and collaboration-as it allows the traditional determinants of human trust, such as the benevolence and competence attributed to the trustee, to be defined in terms of hierarchical active inference, while vulnerability can be described in terms of information exchange and empowerment. Furthermore, this model emphasizes the role of user feedback during HRC and suggests that boredom and surprise may be used in personalized interactions as markers for under and over-reliance on the system. The description of trust as a sense of virtual control offers a crucial step toward grounding human factors in cognitive neuroscience and improving the design of human-centered technology. Furthermore, we examine the role of shared behavior in the genesis of trust, especially in the context of dyadic collaboration, suggesting important consequences for the acceptability and design of human-robot collaborative systems.
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Affiliation(s)
- Felix Schoeller
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, United States
- Gonda Multidisciplinary Brain Research Center, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel
| | - Mark Miller
- Center for Human Nature, Artificial Intelligence and Neuroscience, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan
- Department of Informatics, University of Sussex, Brighton, United Kingdom
| | - Roy Salomon
- Gonda Multidisciplinary Brain Research Center, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel
| | - Karl J. Friston
- Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging, University College London, London, United Kingdom
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17
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Bernasconi F, Blondiaux E, Potheegadoo J, Stripeikyte G, Pagonabarraga J, Bejr-Kasem H, Bassolino M, Akselrod M, Martinez-Horta S, Sampedro F, Hara M, Horvath J, Franza M, Konik S, Bereau M, Ghika JA, Burkhard PR, Van De Ville D, Faivre N, Rognini G, Krack P, Kulisevsky J, Blanke O. Robot-induced hallucinations in Parkinson's disease depend on altered sensorimotor processing in fronto-temporal network. Sci Transl Med 2021; 13:13/591/eabc8362. [PMID: 33910980 DOI: 10.1126/scitranslmed.abc8362] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/16/2020] [Revised: 08/18/2020] [Accepted: 01/23/2021] [Indexed: 01/23/2023]
Abstract
Hallucinations in Parkinson's disease (PD) are disturbing and frequent non-motor symptoms and constitute a major risk factor for psychosis and dementia. We report a robotics-based approach applying conflicting sensorimotor stimulation, enabling the induction of presence hallucinations (PHs) and the characterization of a subgroup of patients with PD with enhanced sensitivity for conflicting sensorimotor stimulation and robot-induced PH. We next identify the fronto-temporal network of PH by combining MR-compatible robotics (and sensorimotor stimulation in healthy participants) and lesion network mapping (neurological patients without PD). This PH-network was selectively disrupted in an additional and independent cohort of patients with PD, predicted the presence of symptomatic PH, and associated with cognitive decline. These robotics-neuroimaging findings extend existing sensorimotor hallucination models to PD and reveal the pathological cortical sensorimotor processes of PH in PD, potentially indicating a more severe form of PD that has been associated with psychosis and cognitive decline.
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Affiliation(s)
- Fosco Bernasconi
- Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience, Center for Neuroprosthetics & Brain Mind Institute, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), 1202 Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Eva Blondiaux
- Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience, Center for Neuroprosthetics & Brain Mind Institute, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), 1202 Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Jevita Potheegadoo
- Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience, Center for Neuroprosthetics & Brain Mind Institute, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), 1202 Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Giedre Stripeikyte
- Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience, Center for Neuroprosthetics & Brain Mind Institute, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), 1202 Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Javier Pagonabarraga
- Movement Disorders Unit, Neurology Department, Sant Pau Hospital, 08041 Barcelona, Spain.,Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), 08193 Barcelona, Spain.,Centro de Investigación en Red-Enfermedades Neurodegenerativas (CIBERNED), 28031 Madrid, Spain.,Biomedical Research Institute (IIB-Sant Pau), 08041 Barcelona, Spain
| | - Helena Bejr-Kasem
- Movement Disorders Unit, Neurology Department, Sant Pau Hospital, 08041 Barcelona, Spain.,Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), 08193 Barcelona, Spain.,Centro de Investigación en Red-Enfermedades Neurodegenerativas (CIBERNED), 28031 Madrid, Spain.,Biomedical Research Institute (IIB-Sant Pau), 08041 Barcelona, Spain
| | - Michela Bassolino
- Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience, Center for Neuroprosthetics & Brain Mind Institute, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), 1202 Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Michel Akselrod
- Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience, Center for Neuroprosthetics & Brain Mind Institute, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), 1202 Geneva, Switzerland.,MySpace Lab, Lausanne University UNIL and University Hospital of Lausanne, CHUV, 1011 Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Saul Martinez-Horta
- Movement Disorders Unit, Neurology Department, Sant Pau Hospital, 08041 Barcelona, Spain.,Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), 08193 Barcelona, Spain.,Centro de Investigación en Red-Enfermedades Neurodegenerativas (CIBERNED), 28031 Madrid, Spain.,Biomedical Research Institute (IIB-Sant Pau), 08041 Barcelona, Spain
| | - Frederic Sampedro
- Movement Disorders Unit, Neurology Department, Sant Pau Hospital, 08041 Barcelona, Spain.,Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), 08193 Barcelona, Spain.,Centro de Investigación en Red-Enfermedades Neurodegenerativas (CIBERNED), 28031 Madrid, Spain.,Biomedical Research Institute (IIB-Sant Pau), 08041 Barcelona, Spain
| | - Masayuki Hara
- Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Saitama University, 338-8570 Saitama, Japan
| | - Judit Horvath
- Department of Neurology, Geneva University Hospitals, 1205 Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Matteo Franza
- Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience, Center for Neuroprosthetics & Brain Mind Institute, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), 1202 Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Stéphanie Konik
- Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience, Center for Neuroprosthetics & Brain Mind Institute, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), 1202 Geneva, Switzerland.,MySpace Lab, Lausanne University UNIL and University Hospital of Lausanne, CHUV, 1011 Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Matthieu Bereau
- Department of Neurology, Geneva University Hospitals, 1205 Geneva, Switzerland.,Department of Neurology, Besançon University Hospital, 25056 Besançon, France
| | | | - Pierre R Burkhard
- Department of Neurology, Geneva University Hospitals, 1205 Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Dimitri Van De Ville
- Medical Image Processing Laboratory, Institute of Bioengineering, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), 1202 Geneva, Switzerland.,Department of Radiology and Medical Informatics, University of Geneva, 1206 Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Nathan Faivre
- Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience, Center for Neuroprosthetics & Brain Mind Institute, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), 1202 Geneva, Switzerland.,Univ. Grenoble Alpes, Univ. Savoie Mont Blanc, CNRS, LPNC, 38000 Grenoble, France
| | - Giulio Rognini
- Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience, Center for Neuroprosthetics & Brain Mind Institute, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), 1202 Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Paul Krack
- Department of Neurology, Inselspital, University Hospital and University of Bern, 3010 Bern, Switzerland
| | - Jaime Kulisevsky
- Movement Disorders Unit, Neurology Department, Sant Pau Hospital, 08041 Barcelona, Spain. .,Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), 08193 Barcelona, Spain.,Centro de Investigación en Red-Enfermedades Neurodegenerativas (CIBERNED), 28031 Madrid, Spain.,Biomedical Research Institute (IIB-Sant Pau), 08041 Barcelona, Spain
| | - Olaf Blanke
- Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience, Center for Neuroprosthetics & Brain Mind Institute, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), 1202 Geneva, Switzerland. .,Department of Neurology, Geneva University Hospitals, 1205 Geneva, Switzerland
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18
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Hara M, Kanayama N, Blanke O, Salomon R. Modulation of Bodily Self-Consciousness by Self and External Touch. IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON HAPTICS 2021; 14:615-625. [PMID: 33750715 DOI: 10.1109/toh.2021.3067651] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/12/2023]
Abstract
The full body illusion (FBI) is a bodily illusion based on the application of multisensory conflicts that induce changes in bodily self-consciousness (BSC). This has been used to study cognitive brain mechanisms underlying body ownership and related aspects of self-consciousness. Typically, such paradigms employ external passive multisensory stimulation, thus neglecting the possible contributions of self-generated action and haptic cues to body ownership. In this article, the effects of both external and voluntary self-touch on BSC were examined with a robotics-based FBI paradigm. We compared the effects of classical passive visuotactile stimulation and active self-touch (in which experimental participants had a sense of agency over the tactile stimulation) on the FBI. We evaluated these effects using a questionnaire, crossmodal congruency task, and measurements of changes in self-location. The results indicated that both synchronous passive visuotactile stimulation and synchronous active self-touch induced illusory ownership over a virtual body, without significant differences in their magnitudes. However, the FBI induced by active self-touch was associated with a larger drift in self-location towards the virtual body. These results show that movement-related signals arising from self-touch impact the BSC not only for hand ownership but also for torso-centered body ownership and related aspects of BSC.
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19
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Orepic P, Rognini G, Kannape OA, Faivre N, Blanke O. Sensorimotor conflicts induce somatic passivity and louden quiet voices in healthy listeners. Schizophr Res 2021; 231:170-177. [PMID: 33866262 DOI: 10.1016/j.schres.2021.03.014] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/30/2020] [Revised: 02/09/2021] [Accepted: 03/28/2021] [Indexed: 02/08/2023]
Abstract
Sensorimotor conflicts are known to alter the perception of accompanying sensory signals, and deficits in sensory attenuation have been observed in schizophrenia. In the auditory domain, self-generated tones or voices (compared to tones or voices presented passively or with temporal delays) have been associated with changes in loudness perception and attenuated neural responses. It has been argued that for sensory signals to be attenuated, predicted and sensory consequences must have a consistent spatiotemporal relationship, between button presses and reafferent signals, via predictive sensory signaling, a process altered in schizophrenia. Here, we investigated auditory sensory attenuation for a series of morphed voices while healthy participants applied sensorimotor stimulations that had no spatiotemporal relationship to the voice stimuli and that have been shown to induce mild psychosis-like phenomena. In two independent groups of participants, we report a loudening of silent voices and found this effect only during maximal sensorimotor conflicts (versus several control conditions). Importantly, conflicting sensorimotor stimulation also induced a mild psychosis-like state in the form of somatic passivity and participants who experienced stronger passivity lacked the sensorimotor loudening effect. We argue that this conflict-related sensorimotor loudness amplification may represent a reduction of auditory self-attenuation that is lacking in participants experiencing a concomitant mild psychosis-like state. We interpret our results within the framework of the comparator model of sensorimotor control, and discuss the implications of our findings regarding passivity experiences and hallucinations in schizophrenia.
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Affiliation(s)
- Pavo Orepic
- Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience, Center for Neuroprosthetics and Brain Mind Institute, Faculty of Life Sciences, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL), Switzerland
| | - Giulio Rognini
- Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience, Center for Neuroprosthetics and Brain Mind Institute, Faculty of Life Sciences, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL), Switzerland
| | - Oliver Alan Kannape
- Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience, Center for Neuroprosthetics and Brain Mind Institute, Faculty of Life Sciences, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL), Switzerland
| | - Nathan Faivre
- Univ. Grenoble Alpes, Univ. Savoie Mont Blanc, CNRS, LPNC, 38000 Grenoble, France
| | - Olaf Blanke
- Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience, Center for Neuroprosthetics and Brain Mind Institute, Faculty of Life Sciences, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL), Switzerland; Faculty of Medicine, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland.
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20
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Liloia D, Brasso C, Cauda F, Mancuso L, Nani A, Manuello J, Costa T, Duca S, Rocca P. Updating and characterizing neuroanatomical markers in high-risk subjects, recently diagnosed and chronic patients with schizophrenia: A revised coordinate-based meta-analysis. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 2021; 123:83-103. [PMID: 33497790 DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2021.01.010] [Citation(s) in RCA: 28] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/15/2020] [Revised: 01/07/2021] [Accepted: 01/15/2021] [Indexed: 01/10/2023]
Abstract
Characterizing neuroanatomical markers of different stages of schizophrenia (SZ) to assess pathophysiological models of how the disorder develops is an important target for the clinical practice. We performed a meta-analysis of voxel-based morphometry studies of genetic and clinical high-risk subjects (g-/c-HR), recently diagnosed (RDSZ) and chronic SZ patients (ChSZ). We quantified gray matter (GM) changes associated with these four conditions and compared them with contrast and conjunctional data. We performed the behavioral analysis and networks decomposition of alterations to obtain their functional characterization. Results reveal a cortical-subcortical, left-to-right homotopic progression of GM loss. The right anterior cingulate is the only altered region found altered among c-HR, RDSZ and ChSZ. Contrast analyses show left-lateralized insular, amygdalar and parahippocampal GM reduction in RDSZ, which appears bilateral in ChSZ. Functional decomposition shows involvement of the salience network, with an enlargement of the sensorimotor network in RDSZ and the thalamus-basal nuclei network in ChSZ. These findings support the current neuroprogressive models of SZ and integrate this deterioration with the clinical evolution of the disease.
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Affiliation(s)
- Donato Liloia
- GCS-fMRI, Koelliker Hospital and Department of Psychology, University of Turin, Turin, Italy; Functional Neuroimaging and Complex Neural Systems (FOCUS) Laboratory, Department of Psychology, University of Turin, Turin, Italy.
| | - Claudio Brasso
- Department of Neuroscience "Rita Levi Montalcini", University of Turin, Turin, Italy.
| | - Franco Cauda
- GCS-fMRI, Koelliker Hospital and Department of Psychology, University of Turin, Turin, Italy; Functional Neuroimaging and Complex Neural Systems (FOCUS) Laboratory, Department of Psychology, University of Turin, Turin, Italy; Neuroscience Institute of Turin (NIT), University of Turin, Turin, Italy.
| | - Lorenzo Mancuso
- GCS-fMRI, Koelliker Hospital and Department of Psychology, University of Turin, Turin, Italy; Functional Neuroimaging and Complex Neural Systems (FOCUS) Laboratory, Department of Psychology, University of Turin, Turin, Italy.
| | - Andrea Nani
- GCS-fMRI, Koelliker Hospital and Department of Psychology, University of Turin, Turin, Italy; Functional Neuroimaging and Complex Neural Systems (FOCUS) Laboratory, Department of Psychology, University of Turin, Turin, Italy.
| | - Jordi Manuello
- GCS-fMRI, Koelliker Hospital and Department of Psychology, University of Turin, Turin, Italy; Functional Neuroimaging and Complex Neural Systems (FOCUS) Laboratory, Department of Psychology, University of Turin, Turin, Italy.
| | - Tommaso Costa
- GCS-fMRI, Koelliker Hospital and Department of Psychology, University of Turin, Turin, Italy; Functional Neuroimaging and Complex Neural Systems (FOCUS) Laboratory, Department of Psychology, University of Turin, Turin, Italy; Neuroscience Institute of Turin (NIT), University of Turin, Turin, Italy.
| | - Sergio Duca
- GCS-fMRI, Koelliker Hospital and Department of Psychology, University of Turin, Turin, Italy; Functional Neuroimaging and Complex Neural Systems (FOCUS) Laboratory, Department of Psychology, University of Turin, Turin, Italy.
| | - Paola Rocca
- Department of Neuroscience "Rita Levi Montalcini", University of Turin, Turin, Italy; Neuroscience Institute of Turin (NIT), University of Turin, Turin, Italy.
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21
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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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22
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Drori G, Bar-Tal P, Stern Y, Zvilichovsky Y, Salomon R. UnReal? Investigating the Sense of Reality and Psychotic Symptoms with Virtual Reality. J Clin Med 2020; 9:jcm9061627. [PMID: 32481568 PMCID: PMC7355917 DOI: 10.3390/jcm9061627] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/15/2020] [Revised: 05/13/2020] [Accepted: 05/20/2020] [Indexed: 12/28/2022] Open
Abstract
Distortions of reality, such as hallucinations, are common symptoms of many psychiatric conditions. Accordingly, sense of reality (SoR), the ability to discriminate between true and false perceptions, is a central criterion in the assessment of neurological and psychiatric health. Despite the critical role of the SoR in daily life, little is known about how this is formed in the mind. Here, we propose a novel theoretical and methodological framework to study the SoR and its relation to psychotic symptoms. In two experiments, we employed a specialized immersive virtual reality (VR) environment allowing for well-controlled manipulations of visual reality. We first tested the impact of manipulating visual reality on objective perceptual thresholds (just noticeable differences). In a second experiment, we tested how these manipulations affected subjective judgments of reality. The results revealed that the objective perceptual thresholds were robust and replicable, demonstrating that SoR is a stable psychometric property that can be measured experimentally. Furthermore, reality alterations reduced subjective reality judgments across all manipulated visual aspects. Finally, reduced sensitivity to changes in visual reality was related to self-reported prodromal psychotic symptoms. These results provide evidence for the relevance of SoR in the assessment of psychosis and other mental disorders in which reality is distorted.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gad Drori
- Gonda Brain Research Center, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan 5290002, Israel; (P.B.-T.); (Y.S.); (Y.Z.); (R.S.)
- Correspondence:
| | - Paz Bar-Tal
- Gonda Brain Research Center, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan 5290002, Israel; (P.B.-T.); (Y.S.); (Y.Z.); (R.S.)
| | - Yonatan Stern
- Gonda Brain Research Center, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan 5290002, Israel; (P.B.-T.); (Y.S.); (Y.Z.); (R.S.)
- Psychology Department, University of Haifa, Haifa 3498838, Israel
| | - Yair Zvilichovsky
- Gonda Brain Research Center, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan 5290002, Israel; (P.B.-T.); (Y.S.); (Y.Z.); (R.S.)
| | - Roy Salomon
- Gonda Brain Research Center, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan 5290002, Israel; (P.B.-T.); (Y.S.); (Y.Z.); (R.S.)
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