Explicit and Implicit Affect and Judgment in Schizotypy

Examining associations between social anhedonia and convergent thinking using the Remote Associates Test

Introduction: Social anhedonia (SocAnh) predicts increased risk of schizophrenia-spectrum disorders, with evidence that these disorders are associated with increased creativity. However, it is still largely unknown whether SocAnh is associated with one central aspect of creative thinking, convergent thinking.Methods: In two studies, college students with either extreme levels of SocAnh (n = 44 and n = 70) or controls with an average level of SocAnh (n = 111 and n = 100) completed a convergent thinking task, the Remote Associates Test, and also completed measures of current affect. In the second study, participants also completed a divergent thinking task.Results: In both studies, the SocAnh group had better performance than controls on the convergent thinking task. Further, this group difference remained after removing shared variance with current affect. In Study 2, groups did not differ on divergent thinking.Conclusions: Overall, consistent with research linking schizophrenia-spectrum disorders and creativity, the current research suggests that SocAnh is associated with increases in some aspects of creativity.

Shared and unique affective abnormalities in schizotypy dimensions

Attention to affect is theoretically a precursor to one's ideal affect (i.e., preference for feeling low- and high-arousal positive and negative affect) and emotion regulation (ER). In schizotypy, there have been mixed findings regarding abnormalities in attention to affect. At the same time, little is known about ideal affect in schizotypy or whether differences in ideal affect or ER difficulties in schizotypy are driven by attention to affect. Thus, this study aimed to identify shared and unique abnormalities in attention to affect, ideal affect, and ER difficulties in schizotypy, and to test whether attention to affect underlies differences in ideal affect and ER difficulties. Using groups of individuals with either extreme levels of social anhedonia (SocAnh; n = 181), extreme levels of perceptual aberrations/magical ideation (PerMag; n = 105), or individuals low on both (i.e., controls; n = 531), we tested group differences in attention to affect, ideal affect, and ER difficulties. Our findings suggest both shared and unique affective abnormalities; compared to controls, the SocAnh group paid the least attention to positive affect. Only PerMag had heightened attention to negative affect compared to controls. Additionally, we found unique abnormalities relating to ideal affect but mostly shared difficulties in ER in schizotypy. Abnormalities in ideal affect and ER remain largely consistent after accounting for attention to affect for PerMag, suggesting that attention to affect is not the primary mechanism driving these abnormalities. However, we found evidence that attention to affect underlies some SocAnh-control group differences in ideal affect and ER difficulties. Our work helps to clarify prior work and contributes to the understanding of shared and unique affective abnormalities in schizotypy. Future research may consider longitudinal approaches to test causal mechanisms of affective abnormalities in schizotypy.

Electrophysiological responses to images ranging in motivational salience: Attentional abnormalities associated with schizophrenia-spectrum disorder risk

Individuals at risk for schizophrenia-spectrum disorders display abnormalities related to motivational salience, or the ability of stimuli to elicit attention due to associations with rewards or punishments. However, the nature of these abnormalities is unclear because most focus on responses to stimuli from broad “pleasant” and “unpleasant” categories and ignore the variation of motivational salience within these categories. In two groups at risk for schizophrenia-spectrum disorders—a Social Anhedonia group and a Psychotic-like Experiences group—and a control group, the current study examined event-related potential components sensitive to motivational salience—the Early Posterior Negativity (EPN), reflecting earlier selective attention, and the Late Positive Potential (LPP), reflecting sustained attention. Compared to controls, the Social Anhedonia group showed smaller increases in the EPN in response to erotica and smaller increases in the LPP as the motivational salience of pleasant images increased (exciting<affiliative<erotica). In contrast, the Psychotic-like Experiences group had larger increases in LPP amplitudes as the motivational salience of pleasant images increased. Also, both at-risk groups showed larger increases in the LPP to threatening images but smaller increases to mutilation images. These findings suggest that examining abnormalities beyond those associated with broad categories may be a way to identify mechanisms of dysfunction.