Cited by 26Schizophrenia research and treatmentNeural and Behavioral Psychology StudiesNeurotransmitter Receptor Influence on Behavior

Reinforcement learning as an intermediate phenotype in psychosis? Deficits sensitive to illness stage but not associated with polygenic risk of schizophrenia in the general population

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Montagnese, Marcella, Knolle, Franziska, Haarsma, Joost, Griffin, Juliet D., Richards, Alex, Vertes, Petra E., Kiddle, Beatrix, Fletcher, Paul C. +8 more·2020·Schizophrenia Research

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Abstract

BACKGROUND: Schizophrenia is a complex disorder in which the causal relations between risk genes and observed clinical symptoms are not well understood and the explanatory gap is too wide to be clarified without considering an intermediary level. Thus, we aimed to test the hypothesis of a pathway from molecular polygenic influence to clinical presentation occurring via deficits in reinforcement learning. METHODS: We administered a reinforcement learning task (Go/NoGo) that measures reinforcement learning and the effect of Pavlovian bias on decision making. We modelled the behavioural data with a hierarchical Bayesian approach (hBayesDM) to decompose task performance into its underlying learning mechanisms. Study 1 included controls (n = 29, F|M = 0.81), At Risk Mental State for psychosis (ARMS, n = 23, F|M = 0.35) and FEP (First-episode psychosis, n = 26, F|M = 0.18). Study 2 included healthy adolescents (n = 735, F|M = 1.06), 390 of whom had their polygenic risk scores for schizophrenia (PRSs) calculated. RESULTS: Patients with FEP showed significant impairments in overriding Pavlovian conflict, a lower learning rate and a lower sensitivity to both reward and punishment. Less widespread deficits were observed in ARMS. PRSs did not significantly predict performance on the task in the general population, which only partially correlated with measures of psychopathology. CONCLUSIONS: Reinforcement learning deficits are observed in first episode psychosis and, to some extent, in those at clinical risk for psychosis, and were not predicted by molecular genetic risk for schizophrenia in healthy individuals. The study does not support the role of reinforcement learning as an intermediate phenotype in psychosis.

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Research works printed but not linked: 3

  1. conceptualization, methodology, supervision, writing (review and editing); NSPN Consor- tium: conceptualization, methodology, project administration. GKM, conceptualization, project administration, methodology, supervision, writing (original draft preparation, re- view and editing). References
  2. Davies, D., 2017. Psychotic Experiences beyond Psychotic Disorders in Young People: From Measurement to Computational Mechanisms. PhD. University of Cambridge.
  3. Peters et al. Delusions Inventory (PDI). Schizophr. Bull. 30 (4), 1005-1022.

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Authors
Montagnese, M., Knolle, F., Haarsma, J., Griffin, J. D., Richards, A., Vertes, P. E., Kiddle, B., Fletcher, P. C., Jones, P. B., Owen, M. J., Fonagy, P., Bullmore, E. T., Dolan, R. J., Moutoussis, M., Goodyer, I. M., & Murray, G. K.
Affiliations
  • University of Cambridge (GB)
  • National Health Service (GB)
  • Cardiff University (GB)
  • University College London (GB)
  • Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging (GB)
Corresponding author
Murray, Graham K.
Venue
Schizophrenia Research
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2020-08
Volume
222
Pages
389-396
ISSN
0920-9964 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W3018331763
Cited by
26
References
50
Citations by year
2026: 2 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 8 · 2022: 1 · 2021: 5
FWCI
2.55
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Schizophrenia Research (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • UCL Discovery (University College London) (submittedVersion)
  • mediaTUM – the media and publications repository of the Technical University Munich (Technical University Munich) (submittedVersion)
Funders
Wellcome Trust
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Schizophrenia research and treatment
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience › Neurotransmitter Receptor Influence on Behavior
Keywords
reinforcement learning, endophenotypes
MeSH terms
Adolescent, Bayes Theorem, Humans, Phenotype, Psychotic Disorders, Schizophrenia, Multifactorial Inheritance

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