title: Impaired Activation in Cognitive Control Regions Predicts Reversal Learning in Schizophrenia.
abstract: Reinforcement learning deficits have been associated with schizophrenia (SZ). However, the pathophysiology that gives rise to these abnormalities remains unclear. To address this question, SZ patients (N = 58) and controls (CN; N = 36) completed a probabilistic reversal-learning paradigm during functional magnetic resonance imaging scanning. During the task, participants choose between 2 stimuli. Initially, 1 stimulus was frequently rewarded (80%); the other was infrequently rewarded (20%). The reward contingencies reversed periodically because the participant learned the more rewarded stimulus. The results indicated that SZ patients achieved fewer reversals than CN, and demonstrated decreased winstay-loseshift decision-making behavior. On loseshift compared to winstay trials, SZ patients showed reduced Blood Oxygen Level Dependent activation compared to CN in a network of brain regions widely associated with cognitive control, and striatal regions. Importantly, relationships between group membership and behavior were mediated by alterations in the activity of cognitive control regions, but not striatum. These findings indicate an important role for the cognitive control network in mediating the use and updating of value representations in SZ. Such results provide biological targets for further inquiry because researchers attempt to better characterize decision-making neural circuitry in SZ as a means to discover new pathways for interventions.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Washington University in St Louis, St Louis, MO; aculbreth@wustl.edu.
authors.forename: Adam J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Culbreth
authors.affiliation: University of Maryland School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry and Maryland Psychiatric Research Center, Baltimore MD;
authors.forename: James M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Gold
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre, Nijmegen, The Netherlands; Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging, Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Nijmegen, The Netherlands;
authors.forename: Roshan
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Cools
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Washington University in St Louis, St Louis, MO; Department of Psychiatry & Radiology, Washington University in St Louis, St Louis, MO.
authors.forename: Deanna M
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Barch
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000503:physiopathology*; D003342:Corpus Striatum / Q000503:physiopathology*; D056344:Executive Function / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012193:Reversal Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000503:physiopathology*
keywords: cognitive control; fMRI; negative symptoms; reinforcement learning; reversal learning; reward processing; schizophrenia