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Leclercq S, Szaffarczyk S, Leptourgos P, Yger P, Fakhri A, Wathelet M, Bouttier V, Denève S, Jardri R. Conspiracy beliefs and perceptual inference in times of political uncertainty. Sci Rep 2024; 14:9001. [PMID: 38637589 PMCID: PMC11026417 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-59434-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/11/2023] [Accepted: 04/10/2024] [Indexed: 04/20/2024] Open
Abstract
Sociopolitical crises causing uncertainty have accumulated in recent years, providing fertile ground for the emergence of conspiracy ideations. Computational models constitute valuable tools for understanding the mechanisms at play in the formation and rigidification of these unshakeable beliefs. Here, the Circular Inference model was used to capture associations between changes in perceptual inference and the dynamics of conspiracy ideations in times of uncertainty. A bistable perception task and conspiracy belief assessment focused on major sociopolitical events were administered to large populations from three polarized countries. We show that when uncertainty peaks, an overweighting of sensory information is associated with conspiracy ideations. Progressively, this exploration strategy gives way to an exploitation strategy in which increased adherence to conspiracy theories is associated with the amplification of prior information. Overall, the Circular Inference model sheds new light on the possible mechanisms underlying the progressive strengthening of conspiracy theories when individuals face highly uncertain situations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Salomé Leclercq
- INSERM U1172, CHU Lille, Lille Neuroscience and Cognition Centre, CURE Platform, Fontan Hospital, Lille University, 59000, Lille, France.
| | - Sébastien Szaffarczyk
- INSERM U1172, CHU Lille, Lille Neuroscience and Cognition Centre, CURE Platform, Fontan Hospital, Lille University, 59000, Lille, France
| | - Pantelis Leptourgos
- INSERM U1172, CHU Lille, Lille Neuroscience and Cognition Centre, CURE Platform, Fontan Hospital, Lille University, 59000, Lille, France
| | - Pierre Yger
- INSERM U1172, CHU Lille, Lille Neuroscience and Cognition Centre, CURE Platform, Fontan Hospital, Lille University, 59000, Lille, France
| | | | - Marielle Wathelet
- INSERM U1172, CHU Lille, Lille Neuroscience and Cognition Centre, CURE Platform, Fontan Hospital, Lille University, 59000, Lille, France
| | - Vincent Bouttier
- INSERM U1172, CHU Lille, Lille Neuroscience and Cognition Centre, CURE Platform, Fontan Hospital, Lille University, 59000, Lille, France
- LNC, INSERM U-960, Institut de Sciences Cognitives, École Normale Supérieure, 75005, Paris, France
| | - Sophie Denève
- LNC, INSERM U-960, Institut de Sciences Cognitives, École Normale Supérieure, 75005, Paris, France
| | - Renaud Jardri
- INSERM U1172, CHU Lille, Lille Neuroscience and Cognition Centre, CURE Platform, Fontan Hospital, Lille University, 59000, Lille, France.
- LNC, INSERM U-960, Institut de Sciences Cognitives, École Normale Supérieure, 75005, Paris, France.
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2
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Batten SR, Bang D, Kopell BH, Davis AN, Heflin M, Fu Q, Perl O, Ziafat K, Hashemi A, Saez I, Barbosa LS, Twomey T, Lohrenz T, White JP, Dayan P, Charney AW, Figee M, Mayberg HS, Kishida KT, Gu X, Montague PR. Dopamine and serotonin in human substantia nigra track social context and value signals during economic exchange. Nat Hum Behav 2024; 8:718-728. [PMID: 38409356 PMCID: PMC11045309 DOI: 10.1038/s41562-024-01831-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/28/2023] [Accepted: 01/16/2024] [Indexed: 02/28/2024]
Abstract
Dopamine and serotonin are hypothesized to guide social behaviours. In humans, however, we have not yet been able to study neuromodulator dynamics as social interaction unfolds. Here, we obtained subsecond estimates of dopamine and serotonin from human substantia nigra pars reticulata during the ultimatum game. Participants, who were patients with Parkinson's disease undergoing awake brain surgery, had to accept or reject monetary offers of varying fairness from human and computer players. They rejected more offers in the human than the computer condition, an effect of social context associated with higher overall levels of dopamine but not serotonin. Regardless of the social context, relative changes in dopamine tracked trial-by-trial changes in offer value-akin to reward prediction errors-whereas serotonin tracked the current offer value. These results show that dopamine and serotonin fluctuations in one of the basal ganglia's main output structures reflect distinct social context and value signals.
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Affiliation(s)
- Seth R Batten
- Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC, Virginia Tech, Roanoke, VA, USA.
| | - Dan Bang
- Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC, Virginia Tech, Roanoke, VA, USA.
- Center of Functionally Integrative Neuroscience, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark.
- Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging, University College London, London, UK.
- Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
| | - Brian H Kopell
- Nash Family Center for Advanced Circuit Therapeutics, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA
- Center for Neuromodulation, Department of Neurosurgery, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA
| | - Arianna N Davis
- Department of Psychiatry, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA
- Center for Computational Psychiatry, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA
| | - Matthew Heflin
- Department of Psychiatry, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA
- Center for Computational Psychiatry, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA
| | - Qixiu Fu
- Department of Psychiatry, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA
- Center for Computational Psychiatry, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA
| | - Ofer Perl
- Department of Psychiatry, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA
- Center for Computational Psychiatry, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA
| | - Kimia Ziafat
- Department of Psychiatry, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA
| | - Alice Hashemi
- Department of Psychiatry, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA
| | - Ignacio Saez
- Department of Psychiatry, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA
| | - Leonardo S Barbosa
- Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC, Virginia Tech, Roanoke, VA, USA
| | - Thomas Twomey
- Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC, Virginia Tech, Roanoke, VA, USA
| | - Terry Lohrenz
- Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC, Virginia Tech, Roanoke, VA, USA
| | - Jason P White
- Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC, Virginia Tech, Roanoke, VA, USA
| | - Peter Dayan
- Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, Tübingen, Germany
- University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
| | - Alexander W Charney
- Department of Psychiatry, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA
| | - Martijn Figee
- Nash Family Center for Advanced Circuit Therapeutics, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA
- Center for Neuromodulation, Department of Neurosurgery, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA
- Department of Psychiatry, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA
| | - Helen S Mayberg
- Nash Family Center for Advanced Circuit Therapeutics, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA
- Center for Neuromodulation, Department of Neurosurgery, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA
| | - Kenneth T Kishida
- Department of Translational Neuroscience, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC, USA
- Department of Neurosurgery, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC, USA
| | - Xiaosi Gu
- Department of Psychiatry, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA.
- Center for Computational Psychiatry, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA.
- Nash Family Department of Neuroscience, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA.
| | - P Read Montague
- Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC, Virginia Tech, Roanoke, VA, USA.
- Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging, University College London, London, UK.
- Department of Physics, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA, USA.
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Moutoussis M. Would You Act Out of Spite? Toward Understanding the Neurocomputational Underpinnings of Spite Sensitivity in Persecutory Ideation. BIOLOGICAL PSYCHIATRY. COGNITIVE NEUROSCIENCE AND NEUROIMAGING 2024; 9:372-374. [PMID: 38583930 DOI: 10.1016/j.bpsc.2024.02.002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/13/2024] [Accepted: 02/13/2024] [Indexed: 04/09/2024]
Affiliation(s)
- Michael Moutoussis
- Department of Imaging Neuroscience, University College London, London, United Kingdom.
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Kazinka R, Kwashie AND, Pratt DN, Vilares I, MacDonald AW. Value Representations of Spite Sensitivity in Psychosis on the Minnesota Trust Game. BIOLOGICAL PSYCHIATRY. COGNITIVE NEUROSCIENCE AND NEUROIMAGING 2024; 9:429-436. [PMID: 38096987 PMCID: PMC10999326 DOI: 10.1016/j.bpsc.2023.11.010] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/11/2023] [Revised: 10/20/2023] [Accepted: 11/05/2023] [Indexed: 02/17/2024]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Spite sensitivity provides a valuable construct to understand persecutory ideation and its underlying neural mechanisms. We examined the relationship between persecution and spite sensitivity in psychosis to identify their neural substrates. METHODS In a 3T magnetic resonance imaging scanner, 49 participants with psychosis played the Minnesota Trust Game, in which they decided whether to take a small amount of money or trust a partner to choose between fair and unfair distributions of money. In some conditions, the partner benefited from the unfair option, while in others, the partner lost money. Participants who were untrusting in the second condition (suspiciousness) showed heightened sensitivity to spite. Behavioral measures included mistrust during the 2 conditions of the game, which were compared with Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale persecution and computational modeling. Functional connectivity and blood oxygen level-dependent analyses were also conducted on a priori regions during spite-sensitive decisions. RESULTS Behavioral results replicated previous findings; participants who experienced more persecutory ideation trusted less, specifically in the suspiciousness condition. Functional connectivity findings showed that decreased connectivity between the orbitofrontal cortex-insula and the left frontoparietal network was associated with increased persecutory ideation and estimated spite-guilt (a marker of spite sensitivity). Additionally, we found differences between conditions in caudate nucleus, medial prefrontal cortex, and lateral orbitofrontal cortex activation. CONCLUSIONS These findings provide a new perspective on the origin of positive symptoms by identifying primary brain circuits that are related to both spite sensitivity and persecutory ideation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rebecca Kazinka
- Department of Psychology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota; Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine, University of Minnesota School of Medicine, Minneapolis, Minnesota
| | | | - Danielle N Pratt
- Department of Psychology, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois
| | - Iris Vilares
- Department of Psychology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota
| | - Angus W MacDonald
- Department of Psychology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota.
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5
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Schlier B, Lincoln TM, Kingston JL, So SH, Gaudiano BA, Morris EMJ, Ellett L. Cross-cultural validation of the revised Green et al., paranoid thoughts scale. Psychol Med 2024:1-7. [PMID: 38314511 DOI: 10.1017/s0033291724000072] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/06/2024]
Abstract
BACKGROUND With efforts increasing worldwide to understand and treat paranoia, there is a pressing need for cross-culturally valid assessments of paranoid beliefs. The recently developed Revised Green et al., Paranoid Thoughts Scale (R-GPTS) constitutes an easy to administer self-report assessment of mild ideas of reference and more severe persecutory thoughts. Moreover, it comes with clinical cut-offs for increased usability in research and clinical practice. With multiple translations of the R-GPTS already available and in use, a formal test of its measurement invariance is now needed. METHODS Using data from a multinational cross-sectional online survey in the UK, USA, Australia, Germany, and Hong Kong (N = 2510), we performed confirmatory factory analyses on the R-GPTS and tested for measurement invariance across sites. RESULTS We found sufficient fit for the two-factor structure (ideas of reference, persecutory thoughts) of the R-GPTS across cultures. Measurement invariance was found for the persecutory thoughts subscale, indicating that it does measure the same construct across the tested samples in the same way. For ideas of reference, we found no scalar invariance, which was traced back to (mostly higher) item intercepts in the Hong Kong sample. CONCLUSION We found sufficient invariance for the persecutory thoughts scale, which is of substantial practical importance, as it is used for the screening of clinical paranoia. A direct comparison of the ideas of reference sum-scores between cultures, however, may lead to an over-estimation of these milder forms of paranoia in some (non-western) cultures.
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Affiliation(s)
- Björn Schlier
- Universität Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany
- University of Wuppertal, Wuppertal, Germany
| | | | | | - Suzanne H So
- The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR
| | | | | | - Lyn Ellett
- University of Southampton, Southampton, UK
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6
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Sheffield JM, Smith R, Suthaharan P, Leptourgos P, Corlett PR. Relationships between cognitive biases, decision-making, and delusions. Sci Rep 2023; 13:9485. [PMID: 37301915 PMCID: PMC10257713 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-36526-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/27/2022] [Accepted: 06/05/2023] [Indexed: 06/12/2023] Open
Abstract
Multiple measures of decision-making under uncertainty (e.g. jumping to conclusions (JTC), bias against disconfirmatory evidence (BADE), win-switch behavior, random exploration) have been associated with delusional thinking in independent studies. Yet, it is unknown whether these variables explain shared or unique variance in delusional thinking, and whether these relationships are specific to paranoia or delusional ideation more broadly. Additionally, the underlying computational mechanisms require further investigation. To investigate these questions, task and self-report data were collected in 88 individuals (46 healthy controls, 42 schizophrenia-spectrum) and included measures of cognitive biases and behavior on probabilistic reversal learning and explore/exploit tasks. Of those, only win-switch rate significantly differed between groups. In regression, reversal learning performance, random exploration, and poor evidence integration during BADE showed significant, independent associations with paranoia. Only self-reported JTC was associated with delusional ideation, controlling for paranoia. Computational parameters increased the proportion of variance explained in paranoia. Overall, decision-making influenced by strong volatility and variability is specifically associated with paranoia, whereas self-reported hasty decision-making is specifically associated with other themes of delusional ideation. These aspects of decision-making under uncertainty may therefore represent distinct cognitive processes that, together, have the potential to worsen delusional thinking across the psychosis spectrum.
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Affiliation(s)
- Julia M Sheffield
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, 1601 23rd Ave S, Nashville, TN, 37209, USA.
| | - Ryan Smith
- Laureate Institute for Brain Research, Tulsa, USA
| | | | - Pantelis Leptourgos
- Department of Psychiatry, Yale University, New Haven, USA
- University of Lille, Lille, France
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7
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Suthaharan P, Corlett PR. Assumed shared belief about conspiracy theories in social networks protects paranoid individuals against distress. Sci Rep 2023; 13:6084. [PMID: 37055504 PMCID: PMC10100615 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-33305-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/07/2022] [Accepted: 04/10/2023] [Indexed: 04/15/2023] Open
Abstract
Paranoia is the belief that others intend you harm. It is related to conspiracy theories, wherein those others represent an organized faction, coordinating the harm against self and others, and violating societal norms. Current psychological studies of paranoid conspiracy theorizing focus either on the individual or their broader social network. Likewise, theories of belief formation and updating often contain individual level processes as well as broader interpersonal and organizational factors. Here we examine paranoia and conspiracy theorizing in terms of individual behavioral predictors (performance on a probabilistic reversal learning task which assays belief updating) as well as social sensing: we ask participants to report the features of their social network, including whether their friends and acquaintances share their paranoid conspiratorial beliefs. We find that people who believe paranoid conspiracy theories expect more volatility during the task. They also assume that members of their social network share their paranoid beliefs. Critically, those participants with larger social networks and greater assumed shared belief tend to harbor their conspiratorial beliefs with less emotional distress and expect less volatility in the task. This is evidence that, like political and religious beliefs, conspiracy theories may flourish under a sacred canopy of belief consensus. These data suggest that friends and acquaintances may serve as sources of credulity and moving between them may sustain conspiracy beliefs when there is detraction. This hybrid individual/social account may shed light on clinical paranoia and persecutory delusion, wherein disability is defined normatively, and social supports are fewer.
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Affiliation(s)
- Praveen Suthaharan
- Interdepartmental Neuroscience Program, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA
- Kavli Institute for Neuroscience, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA
- Department of Psychiatry, Connecticut Mental Health Center, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA
| | - Philip R Corlett
- Kavli Institute for Neuroscience, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA.
- Department of Psychiatry, Connecticut Mental Health Center, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA.
- Department of Psychology, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA.
- Wu Tsai Institute, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA.
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8
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Barnby JM, Dayan P, Bell V. Formalising social representation to explain psychiatric symptoms. Trends Cogn Sci 2023; 27:317-332. [PMID: 36609016 DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2022.12.004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/06/2022] [Revised: 12/09/2022] [Accepted: 12/13/2022] [Indexed: 01/06/2023]
Abstract
Recent work in social cognition has moved beyond a focus on how people process social rewards to examine how healthy people represent other agents and how this is altered in psychiatric disorders. However, formal modelling of social representation has not kept pace with these changes, impeding our understanding of how core aspects of social cognition function, and fail, in psychopathology. Here, we suggest that belief-based computational models provide a basis for an integrated sociocognitive approach to psychiatry, with the potential to address important but unexamined pathologies of social representation, such as maladaptive schemas and illusory social agents.
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Affiliation(s)
- Joseph M Barnby
- Social Computation and Cognitive Representation Lab, Department of Psychology, Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham TW20 0EX, UK.
| | - Peter Dayan
- Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, Tübingen, 72076, Germany; University of Tübingen, Tübingen, 72074, Germany
| | - Vaughan Bell
- Clinical, Educational, and Health Psychology, University College London, London WC1E 7HB, UK; South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, London SE5 8AZ, UK
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9
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Kazinka R. The Specificity of Paranoia and Uncertainty. BIOLOGICAL PSYCHIATRY: COGNITIVE NEUROSCIENCE AND NEUROIMAGING 2022; 7:1053-1054. [DOI: 10.1016/j.bpsc.2022.09.011] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/22/2022] [Accepted: 09/24/2022] [Indexed: 11/06/2022]
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