Schizophrenia subjects show intact success-related neural activation but impaired uncertainty processing during decision-making

Neuropsychopharmacology. 2003 Apr;28(4):795-806. doi: 10.1038/sj.npp.1300108. Epub 2002 Nov 1.

Abstract

Decision-making is a complex process that is important for everyday life. This study examined the effect of the degree of success, and outcome uncertainty, on decision-making and associated neural substrate activation in schizophrenia subjects (SZS) and normal comparison subjects (NCS). A total of 15 subjects with a diagnosis of schizophrenia and 15 age- and education-matched NCS participated in this study. These subjects completed the two-choice prediction task during functional magnetic resonance imaging. Decision-making characteristics and activation of neural substrates were obtained at 20, 50, or 80% error rate. Success and uncertainty influenced the behavioral characteristics on the two-choice prediction task, and the task-related activation in SZS and NCS. Neither success nor uncertainty differentially affected the behavioral characteristics of SZS relative to NCS during the two-choice prediction task. Nonetheless, there was a significant interaction between group and error rate in bilateral parietal cortex. The activation in NCS was the highest when the outcome was most uncertain. In contrast, task-related activation in SZS was not modulated by the degree of uncertainty. Thus, SZS failed to utilize the parietal cortex to process decision-making situations with highly uncertain outcomes.

Publication types

  • Comparative Study
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Analysis of Variance
  • Choice Behavior / physiology*
  • Decision Making / physiology
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Magnetic Resonance Imaging / methods
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Parietal Lobe / physiology*
  • Schizophrenia / physiopathology*
  • Schizophrenic Psychology*
  • Uncertainty*