Negative symptoms and the failure to evaluate reward from action

anon31257746 · January 28, 2017, 9:03am

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Negative symptoms and the failure to represent the expected reward value of actions: behavioral and computational modeling evidence.

JM Gold, JA Waltz, TM Matveeva, Z Kasanova, GP Strauss, ES Herbener, AG Collins and MJ Frank, Archives of general psychiatry, Feb 2012

Negative symptoms are a core feature of schizophrenia, but their pathogenesis remains unclear. Negative symptoms are defined by the absence of normal function. However, there must be a productive mechanism that leads to this absence.To test a reinforcement learning account suggesting that negative symptoms result from a failure in the representation of the expected value of rewards coupled with preserved loss-avoidance learning.Participants performed a probabilistic reinforcement learning paradigm involving stimulus pairs in which choices resulted in reward or in loss avoidance. Following training, participants indicated their valuation of the stimuli in a transfer test phase. Computational modeling was used to distinguish between alternative accounts of the data.A tertiary care research outpatient clinic.In total, 47 clinically stable patients with a diagnosis of schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder and 28 healthy volunteers participated in the study. Patients were divided into a high-negative symptom group and a low-negative symptom group.The number of choices leading to reward or loss avoidance, as well as performance in the transfer test phase. Quantitative fits from 3 different models were examined.Patients in the high-negative symptom group demonstrated impaired learning from rewards but intact loss-avoidance learning and failed to distinguish rewarding stimuli from loss-avoiding stimuli in the transfer test phase. Model fits revealed that patients in the high-negative symptom group were better characterized by an "actor-critic" model, learning stimulus-response associations, whereas control subjects and patients in the low-negative symptom group incorporated expected value of their actions ("Q learning") into the selection process.Negative symptoms in schizophrenia are associated with a specific reinforcement learning abnormality: patients with high-negative symptoms do not represent the expected value of rewards when making decisions but learn to avoid punishments through the use of prediction errors. This computational framework offers the potential to understand negative symptoms at a mechanistic level.

far_cry0 · January 28, 2017, 12:40pm

They still dont figure it out cause its complex… we are very annoyed by scientist.they are super slow…

anon11056724 · January 28, 2017, 4:20pm

I have this problem. But in the 15 years since my disgnosis no doctor has ever told me that I suffer from negative symptoms. Even when the positive symptoms are under control I never fully gained back my previous level of functioning.
Do your doctors tell you that you have negative symptoms?

Anon10 · January 28, 2017, 6:07pm

The persistent nature of neg sx is also a feature which should be explained. While pos sx tend to fluctuate neg sx tend to remain stable over time.

shutterbug · January 28, 2017, 6:08pm

You’re kidding, right? They haven’t been able to cure the common cold, either. Complex things take time.

Anon10 · January 28, 2017, 6:11pm

Unlike the common cold negative symptoms are a major unmet treatment need. Many people are suffering with no remission, I think that is an injustice.

anon11056724 · January 28, 2017, 7:05pm

It’s a major crime that people are suffering every day with this illness. I went to a DBSA meeting last night and I’m literally shocked at the lack of effective treatments out there for other disorders as well.
I know that there is a lot of injustice in the world. Ie cancer HIV etc. but it’s just wrong that more hasn’t been done to treat psychosis. Having chronic psychosis is like being roasted over hot coals for eternity. At least cancer patients they can make relatively comfortable

shutterbug · January 28, 2017, 10:27pm

So are seven-year-olds dying painfully of cancer. I’d rather see them get a cure first.

anon11056724 · January 29, 2017, 12:18am

They’re working a lot harder on a cure for cancer then they are psychosis. Although it would be great if they developed a cure or a better medication before I throw myself through this plate glass window

flameoftherhine · January 29, 2017, 12:54am

I would suffer sz and d.id. in all my lives past and future… To know my children and all other hume children would never have to worry about cancer…

Can’t cure cancer can’t cure Sz… But we made sure old mens penises can still get hard…I find that disturbing…

anon11056724 · January 29, 2017, 1:14am

I have an erection lasting 4 hours or more from my psych meds but I can’t go out of the house to use it

shutterbug · January 29, 2017, 1:16am

It’s a numbers game. More people with cancer than with psychosis. The good news is that you can be your own cure. You keeping a recovery diary? Getting therapy? Doing CBT? Doing any workbooks?

anon11056724 · January 29, 2017, 1:25am

I’m religious about my CBT. 2x a week plus one day of OCD therapy. I journal on a regular basis and take my meds as prescribed. I just started to be able to think again and finally able to go out of the house after a year. I’ve got some kind of schizoaffective or bipolar disorder. Had 9 major psychotic episodes with crippling depression

Anon10 · January 29, 2017, 2:37am

It really doesn’t matter what age a cancer sufferer is, but it is more common in people over a certain age. You could have it right now and we would not know. My aunt’s friend has a year left to live with cancer, I know at least 3 people right now personally who are dying of cancer. Schizophrenia is a terrible illness, we shouldn’t minimize anyone’s experience/struggle

metime · January 29, 2017, 4:04am

I was going to mention that.

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Negative symptoms and the failure to evaluate reward from action

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