Open AccessDisrupted prediction-error signal in psychosis: evidence for an associative account of delusions
Author(s) -
Philip R. Corlett,
Graham K. Murray,
G.D. Honey,
Michael R. F. Aitken,
David R. Shanks,
Trevor W. Robbins,
Edward T. Bullmore,
Anthony Dickinson,
Paul C. Fletcher
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
brain
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 5.142
H-Index - 336
eISSN - 1460-2156
pISSN - 0006-8950
DOI - 10.1093/brain/awm173
Subject(s) - delusion , psychology , psychosis , mean squared prediction error , expectancy theory , association (psychology) , cognitive psychology , associative learning , neuroscience , audiology , psychiatry , social psychology , psychotherapist , medicine , algorithm , computer science
Delusions are maladaptive beliefs about the world. Based upon experimental evidence that prediction error-a mismatch between expectancy and outcome--drives belief formation, this study examined the possibility that delusions form because of disrupted prediction--error processing. We used fMRI to determine prediction-error-related brain responses in 12 healthy subjects and 12 individuals (7 males) with delusional beliefs. Frontal cortex responses in the patient group were suggestive of disrupted prediction-error processing. Furthermore, across subjects, the extent of disruption was significantly related to an individual's propensity to delusion formation. Our results support a neurobiological theory of delusion formation that implicates aberrant prediction-error signalling, disrupted attentional allocation and associative learning in the formation of delusional beliefs.
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