scholarly journals M145. ALTERED SUBCORTICAL EMOTIONAL SALIENCE PROCESSING AND A ‘JUMPING TO CONCLUSIONS’ BIAS IN PARKINSON’S PATIENTS WITH PSYCHOTIC SYMPTOMS

2020 ◽  
Vol 46 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. S190-S191
Author(s):  
Franziska Knolle ◽  
Sara Garofalo ◽  
Roberto Viviani ◽  
Anna Ermakova ◽  
Graham Murray
Keyword(s):  
Psychotic Symptoms ◽  
Limited Attention ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Dopaminergic Drugs ◽  
Jumping To Conclusions ◽  
Brain Responses ◽  
Medication Dose ◽  
Patient Groups ◽  
Aberrant Salience ◽  
Emotional Salience

Abstract Background Current research does not provide a clear explanation for why some patients with Parkinson’s Disease (PD) develop psychotic symptoms. In schizophrenia research the ‘aberrant salience hypothesis’ of psychosis has been influential in explaining the development of psychotic symptoms. The theory proposes that dopaminergic dysregulation leads to inappropriate attribution of salience to otherwise irrelevant or non-informative stimuli, facilitating the formation of hallucinations and delusions, by providing irrational explanations. However, this theory has received very limited attention in the context of PD-psychosis. Methods In the study, we investigated salience processing in 14 PD-patients with psychotic symptoms, 23 PD-patients without psychotic symptoms and 19 healthy controls. All patients received dopaminergic medication. There was no difference in the medication dose between the two patient groups. We examined emotional salience using a visual oddball fMRI paradigm that has been used to investigate early stages of schizophrenia spectrum psychosis, controlling for resting cerebral blood flow (arterial spin labelling fMRI). Furthermore, a subgroup of the two patient groups complete a behavioural ‘jumping to conclusions’ task. Results We found significant differences in brain responses to emotional salience between the two patient groups. PD-patients with psychotic symptoms revealed enhanced brain responses in the striatum, the hippocampus and the amygdala compared to patients without psychotic symptoms. PD-patients with psychotic symptoms showed significant correlations between the levels of dopaminergic drugs they were taking and BOLD signalling, as well as psychotic symptom scores. Furthermore, our data provide first indications for dysfunctional top-down processes, measured in a ‘jumping to conclusions’ bias. Discussion Our study suggests that enhanced signalling in the striatum, hippocampus and amygdala together with deficient top-down cognitive regulations is associated with the development of psychotic symptoms in PD, similarly to that proposed in the ‘aberrant salience hypothesis’ of psychosis in schizophrenia.

scholarly journals Altered subcortical emotional salience processing differentiates Parkinson’s patients with and without psychotic symptoms

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. Knolle ◽  
S. Garofalo ◽  
R. Viviani ◽  
A. Justicia ◽  
A.O. Ermakova ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Psychotic Symptoms ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Dopaminergic Drugs ◽  
Brain Responses ◽  
Schizophrenia Spectrum ◽  
Clear Explanation ◽  
History Of ◽  
Patient Groups ◽  
Aberrant Salience ◽  
Emotional Salience

ABSTRACTBackgroundCurrent research does not provide a clear explanation for why some patients with Parkinson’s Disease (PD) develop psychotic symptoms. In the field of schizophrenia research the ‘aberrant salience hypothesis’ of psychosis has been influential. According to the theory, dopaminergic dysregulation leads to the inappropriate attribution of salience to otherwise irrelevant or non-informative stimuli, allowing for the formation of hallucinations and delusions. This theory has not yet been extensively investigated in the context of psychosis in PD.MethodsWe investigated salience processing in 14 PD patients with a history of psychotic symptoms, 23 PD patients without psychotic symptoms and 19 healthy controls. All patients received dopaminergic medication. We examined emotional salience using a visual oddball fMRI paradigm (Bunzeck and Düzel, 2006) that previously has been used to investigate early stages of schizophrenia spectrum psychosis, controlling for resting cerebral blood flow as assessed with arterial spin labelling fMRI.ResultsWe found significant differences between patient groups in brain responses to emotional salience. PD patients with psychotic symptoms revealed senhanced brain responses in the striatum, the hippocampus and the amygdala compared to PD patients without psychotic symptoms. PD patients with psychotic symptoms also showed significant correlations between the levels of dopaminergic drugs they were taking and BOLD signalling, as well as psychotic symptom scores. Furthermore, our data provide a first indication for dysfunctional top-down processes, measured in a ‘jumping to conclusions’ bias.ConclusionOur study suggests that enhanced signalling in the striatum, hippocampus and amygdala together with deficient top-down cognitive regulations is associated with the development of psychotic symptoms in PD which is similar to that proposed in the ‘aberrant salience hypothesis’ of psychosis in schizophrenia.

Aberrant Salience among Young Healthy Postgraduate University Students: The Role of Cannabis Use, Psychotic-Like Experiences, and Personality

2022 ◽  
pp. 1-7
Author(s):  
Andrea Patti ◽  
Gabriele Santarelli ◽  
Giulio D’Anna ◽  
Andrea Ballerini ◽  
Valdo Ricca
Keyword(s):  
University Students ◽  
Personality Traits ◽  
Cannabis Use ◽  
Positive Symptom ◽  
Psychotic Symptoms ◽  
Symptom Frequency ◽  
Character Inventory ◽  
Aberrant Salience ◽  
Self Transcendence

Aberrant salience (AS) is an anomalous world experience which plays a major role in psychotic proneness. In the general population, a deployment of this construct – encompassing personality traits, psychotic-like symptoms, and cannabis use – could prove useful to outline the relative importance of these factors. For this purpose, 106 postgraduate university students filled the AS Inventory (ASI), the Community Assessment of Psychic Experiences (CAPE), the Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI), and the Symptom Checklist 90-Revised (SCL-90-R). Lifetime cannabis users (<i>n</i> = 56) and individuals who did not use cannabis (<i>n</i> = 50) were compared. The role of cannabis use and psychometric indexes on ASI total scores was tested in different subgroups (overall sample, cannabis users, and nonusers). The present study confirmed that cannabis users presented higher ASI scores. The deployment of AS proved to involve positive symptom frequency (assessed through CAPE), character dimensions of self-directedness and self-transcendence (TCI subscales), and cannabis use. Among nonusers, the role of personality traits (assessed through the TCI) was preeminent, whereas positive psychotic-like experiences (measured by means of CAPE) had a major weight among cannabis users. The present study suggests that pre-reflexive anomalous world experiences such as AS are intertwined with reflexive self-consciousness, personality traits, current subclinical psychotic symptoms, and cannabis use. In the present study, subthreshold psychotic experiences proved to play a major role among cannabis users, whereas personality appeared to be more relevant among nonusers.

scholarly journals S198. SELF-DISTURBANCES AND THEIR NEURAL SIGNATURES IN SCHIZOPHRENIA

2020 ◽  
Vol 46 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. S114-S114
Author(s):  
Yulia Zaytseva ◽  
Eva Kozakova ◽  
Pavel Mohr ◽  
Filip Spaniel ◽  
Aaron Mishara
Keyword(s):  
Resting State ◽  
Brain Connectivity ◽  
Resting State Fmri ◽  
Psychotic Symptoms ◽  
Healthy Controls ◽  
Healthy Individuals ◽  
Motor Speech ◽  
Cognitive Domains ◽  
Aberrant Salience ◽  
First Rank Symptoms

Abstract Background The self-disturbances (SDs) concept is considered to be part of the Schneider’s first rank symptoms, i.e., thought-withdrawal, thought-insertion, thought-broadcasting, somatic-passivity experiences, mental/motor automatisms, disrupted unitary self-experience (Mishara et al., 2014). SDs were originally described by W. Mayer-Gross (1920), who observed them in psychotic patients. Methods We classified Mayer-Gross’ findings on SDs into the following categories: experience is new/compelling (aberrant salience), reduced access/importance of autobiographical past, cognitions/emotions occur independently from self’s volition, foreign agents have power over self and developed an SDs scale based on these categories and cognitive domains (perception, motor, speech, thinking etc.). Scale is applied as a measure of the frequency of the experiences. In our current study on phenomenology and neurobiology of psychotic symptoms, we administered the scale to a study group of patients with schizophrenia (N=84) and healthy volunteers (N=170). Further, the resting state fMRI was performed and the group was divided into two subgroups with (N=13) and without self-disturbances (N=10) and in healthy individuals (N=39). Results We found substantial differences in the frequency of self-disturbances in patients with schizophrenia compared to healthy controls (total score differences, Z=-5.83, p&lt; 0.001). On a neural level, patients with self-disturbances experienced a decreased functional brain connectivity of the default mode and salience networks as compared to the patients without self-disturbances and healthy controls. The differences were mainly explained by the factor ‘’foreign agents’’ and the novelty of the experience. Discussion The scale identifies self-disturbances in schizophrenia and confirms self-related processing in patients with schizophrenia to be associated with altered activation in the cortical midline structures. Supported by the grant projects MH CR AZV 17-32957A and MEYS NPU4NUDZ: LO1611.

Antipsychotic treatment beyond antipsychotics: metacognitive intervention for schizophrenia patients improves delusional symptoms

2011 ◽  
Vol 41 (9) ◽  
pp. 1823-1832 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Moritz ◽  
R. Veckenstedt ◽  
S. Randjbar ◽  
F. Vitzthum ◽  
T. S. Woodward
Keyword(s):  
Group Intervention ◽  
Rating Scales ◽  
Cognitive Biases ◽  
Cognitive Remediation ◽  
Behavioural Therapy ◽  
Medium Effect ◽  
Psychotic Symptoms ◽  
Antipsychotic Treatment ◽  
Jumping To Conclusions ◽  
Oriented Approach

BackgroundAlthough antipsychotic medication still represents the treatment of choice for schizophrenia, its objective impact on symptoms is only in the medium-effect size range and at least 50% of patients discontinue medication in the course of treatment. Hence, clinical researchers are intensively looking for complementary therapeutic options. Metacognitive training for schizophrenia patients (MCT) is a group intervention that seeks to sharpen the awareness of schizophrenia patients on cognitive biases (e.g. jumping to conclusions) that seem to underlie delusion formation and maintenance. The present trial combined group MCT with an individualized cognitive-behavioural therapy-oriented approach entitled individualized metacognitive therapy for psychosis (MCT+) and compared it against an active control.MethodA total of 48 patients fulfilling criteria of schizophrenia were randomly allocated to either MCT+ or cognitive remediation (clinical trial NCT01029067). Blind to intervention, both groups were assessed at baseline and 4 weeks later. Psychopathology was assessed using the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) and the Psychotic Symptom Rating Scales (PSYRATS). Jumping to conclusions was measured using a variant of the beads task.ResultsPANSS delusion severity declined significantly in the combined MCT treatment compared with the control condition. PSYRATS delusion conviction as well as jumping to conclusions showed significantly greater improvement in the MCT group. In line with prior studies, treatment adherence and subjective efficacy was excellent for the MCT.ConclusionsThe results suggest that the combination of a cognition-oriented and a symptom-oriented approach ameliorate psychotic symptoms and cognitive biases and represents a promising complementary treatment for schizophrenia.

Dishabituation of Laser-evoked EEG Responses: Dissecting the Effect of Certain and Uncertain Changes in Stimulus Modality

2011 ◽  
Vol 23 (10) ◽  
pp. 2822-2837 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elia Valentini ◽  
Diana M. E. Torta ◽  
André Mouraux ◽  
Gian Domenico Iannetti
Keyword(s):  
Explicit Knowledge ◽  
Sensory Modality ◽  
The Other ◽  
Subjective Perception ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Stimulus Modality ◽  
Bottom Up ◽  
Relative Contribution ◽  
Brain Responses ◽  
Response Habituation

The repetition of nociceptive stimuli of identical modality, intensity, and location at short and constant interstimulus intervals (ISIs) determines a strong habituation of the corresponding EEG responses, without affecting the subjective perception of pain. To understand what determines this response habituation, we (i) examined the effect of introducing a change in the modality of the repeated stimulus, and (ii) dissected the relative contribution of bottom–up, stimulus-driven changes in modality and top–down, cognitive expectations of such a change, on both laser-evoked and auditory-evoked EEG responses. Multichannel EEG was recorded while participants received trains of three stimuli (S1–S2–S3, a triplet) delivered to the hand dorsum at 1-sec ISI. S3 belonged either to the same modality as S1 and S2 or to the other modality. In addition, participants were either explicitly informed or not informed of the modality of S3. We found that introducing a change in stimulus modality produced a significant dishabituation of the laser-evoked N1, N2, and P2 waves; the auditory N1 and P2 waves; and the laser- and auditory-induced event-related synchronization and desynchronization. In contrast, the lack of explicit knowledge of a possible change in the sensory modality of the stimulus (i.e., uncertainty) only increased the ascending portion of the laser-evoked and auditory-evoked P2 wave. Altogether, these results indicate that bottom–up novelty resulting from the change of stimulus modality, and not top–down cognitive expectations, plays a major role in determining the habituation of these brain responses.

scholarly journals Shift toward prior knowledge confers a perceptual advantage in early psychosis and psychosis-prone healthy individuals

2015 ◽  
Vol 112 (43) ◽  
pp. 13401-13406 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christoph Teufel ◽  
Naresh Subramaniam ◽  
Veronika Dobler ◽  
Jesus Perez ◽  
Johanna Finnemann ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Information Processing ◽  
Prior Knowledge ◽  
Early Psychosis ◽  
Psychotic Symptoms ◽  
Psychotic Experiences ◽  
Healthy Individuals ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Bottom Up ◽  
Psychosis Proneness ◽  
Sensory Evidence

Many neuropsychiatric illnesses are associated with psychosis, i.e., hallucinations (perceptions in the absence of causative stimuli) and delusions (irrational, often bizarre beliefs). Current models of brain function view perception as a combination of two distinct sources of information: bottom-up sensory input and top-down influences from prior knowledge. This framework may explain hallucinations and delusions. Here, we characterized the balance between visual bottom-up and top-down processing in people with early psychosis (study 1) and in psychosis-prone, healthy individuals (study 2) to elucidate the mechanisms that might contribute to the emergence of psychotic experiences. Through a specialized mental-health service, we identified unmedicated individuals who experience early psychotic symptoms but fall below the threshold for a categorical diagnosis. We observed that, in early psychosis, there was a shift in information processing favoring prior knowledge over incoming sensory evidence. In the complementary study, we capitalized on subtle variations in perception and belief in the general population that exhibit graded similarity with psychotic experiences (schizotypy). We observed that the degree of psychosis proneness in healthy individuals, and, specifically, the presence of subtle perceptual alterations, is also associated with stronger reliance on prior knowledge. Although, in the current experimental studies, this shift conferred a performance benefit, under most natural viewing situations, it may provoke anomalous perceptual experiences. Overall, we show that early psychosis and psychosis proneness both entail a basic shift in visual information processing, favoring prior knowledge over incoming sensory evidence. The studies provide complementary insights to a mechanism by which psychotic symptoms may emerge.

Misattributing speech and jumping to conclusions: A longitudinal study in people at high risk of psychosis

2015 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 32-37 ◽  
Author(s):  
T.T. Winton-Brown ◽  
M.R. Broome ◽  
P. Allen ◽  
I. Valli ◽  
O. Howes ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Psychotic Disorder ◽  
Symptom Severity ◽  
Cognitive Biases ◽  
Psychotic Symptoms ◽  
Self Monitoring ◽  
Level Of Functioning ◽  
Jumping To Conclusions ◽  
Over Time ◽  
At Risk Mental State

AbstractBiases in cognition such as Jumping to Conclusions (JTC) and Verbal Self-Monitoring (VSM) are thought to underlie the formation of psychotic symptoms. This prospective study in people with an At Risk Mental State (ARMS) for psychosis examined how these cognitive biases changed over time, and predicted clinical and functional outcomes. Twenty-three participants were assessed at clinical presentation and a mean of 31 months later. Performance on a JTC and VSM tasks were measured at both time points. Relationships to symptom severity, level of function and the incidence of psychotic disorder were then examined. The levels of symptoms, function and VSM all improved over time, while JTC was stable. Five participants (22%) developed a psychotic disorder during the follow-up period, but the risk of transition was not related to performance on either task at baseline, or to longitudinal changes in task performance. JTC performance correlated with symptom severity at baseline and follow-up. Similarly, performance on the two tasks was not related to the level of functioning at follow-up. Thus, while the ARMS is associated with both VSM and JTC biases, neither predict the onset of psychosis or the overall functional outcome.

From Aberrant Salience to Jumping to Conclusions

2013 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 149-151 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michele Poletti ◽  
Ubaldo Bonuccelli
Keyword(s):  
Jumping To Conclusions ◽  
Aberrant Salience

scholarly journals Inhibitory Top-Down Control Deficits in Schizophrenia With Auditory Verbal Hallucinations: A Go/NoGo Task

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qiaoling Sun ◽  
Yehua Fang ◽  
Yongyan Shi ◽  
Lifeng Wang ◽  
Xuemei Peng ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Reaction Time ◽  
Event Related Potentials ◽  
Healthy Controls ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Auditory Verbal Hallucinations ◽  
Parietal Area ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Related Potentials ◽  
Patient Groups ◽  
P3 Amplitude

Objective: Auditory verbal hallucinations (AVH), with unclear mechanisms, cause extreme distresses to schizophrenia patients. Deficits of inhibitory top-down control may be linked to AVH. Therefore, in this study, we focused on inhibitory top-down control in schizophrenia patients with AVH.Method: The present study recruited 40 schizophrenia patients, including 20 AVH patients and 20 non-AVH patients, and 23 healthy controls. We employed event-related potentials to investigate the N2 and P3 amplitude and latency differences among these participants during a Go/NoGo task.Results: Relative to healthy controls, the two patient groups observed longer reaction time (RT) and reduced accuracy. The two patient groups had smaller NoGo P3 amplitude than the healthy controls, and the AVH patients showed smaller NoGo P3 amplitude than the non-AVH patients. In all the groups, the parietal area showed smaller NoGo P3 than frontal and central areas. However, no significant difference was found in N2 and Go P3 amplitude between the three groups.Conclusions: AVH patients might have worse inhibitory top-down control, which might be involved in the occurrence of AVH. Hopefully, our results could enhance understanding of the pathology of AVH.

scholarly journals Assessing auditory processing endophenotypes associated with Schizophrenia in individuals with 22q11.2 Deletion Syndrome

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ana A. Francisco ◽  
John J. Foxe ◽  
Douwe J. Horsthuis ◽  
Danielle DeMaio ◽  
Sophie Molholm
Keyword(s):  
Auditory Processing ◽  
Presentation Rate ◽  
22Q11.2 Deletion Syndrome ◽  
Deletion Syndrome ◽  
Psychotic Symptoms ◽  
Oddball Paradigm ◽  
Cognitive Measures ◽  
22Q11.2 Deletion ◽  
Brain Responses ◽  
Adaptation Effects

AbstractBackground22q11.2 Deletion Syndrome (22q11.2DS) is the strongest known molecular risk factor for schizophrenia. Brain responses to auditory stimuli have been studied extensively in schizophrenia and described as potential biomarkers of vulnerability to psychosis. We sought to understand whether these responses might aid in differentiating individuals with 22q11.2DS as a function of psychotic symptoms, and ultimately serve as signals of risk for schizophrenia.MethodsA duration oddball paradigm and high-density electrophysiology were used to test auditory processing in 26 individuals with 22q11.2DS (13-35 years old, 17 females) with varying degrees of psychotic symptomatology and in 26 age- and sex-matched neurotypical controls (NT). Presentation rate varied across three levels, to examine the effect of increasing demands on memory and the integrity of sensory adaptation. We tested whether N1 and mismatch negativity (MMN), typically reduced in schizophrenia, related to clinical/cognitive measures, and how they were affected by presentation rate.ResultsN1 adaptation effects interacted with psychotic symptomatology: Compared to an NT group, individuals with 22q11.2DS but no psychotic symptomatology presented larger adaptation effects, whereas those with psychotic symptomatology presented smaller effects. In contrast, individuals with 22q11.2DS showed increased effects of presentation rate on MMN amplitude, regardless of the presence of symptoms. While IQ and working memory were lower in the 22q11.2DS group, these measures did not correlate with the electrophysiological data.ConclusionsThese findings suggest the presence of two distinct mechanisms: One intrinsic to 22q11.2DS resulting in increased N1 and MMN responses; another related to psychosis leading to a decreased N1 response.

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