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Cheng J, Lavigne KM, Khangura J, Chinchani A, Rasheed M, Woodward BK, Zahid H, Zhao J, Balzan R, Ryder AG, Menon M, Woodward TS. Dimensions of beliefs without strong supporting evidence and reasons for holding them. Heliyon 2023; 9:e19833. [PMID: 37810078 PMCID: PMC10559198 DOI: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e19833] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/24/2022] [Revised: 08/23/2023] [Accepted: 09/03/2023] [Indexed: 10/10/2023] Open
Abstract
Beliefs without strong supporting evidence (BWSSE) are commonplace, such as religious beliefs and conspiracy theories. The goals of the current study were to identify dimensions of BWSSE in the general public and study how reasons for holding each dimension depend on the strength of the belief. Participants completed a BWSSE questionnaire online, and principal component analysis suggested that the questionnaire captured 6 dimensions of beliefs that range in strength: New Age Spiritual, Traditional Spiritual, Nonconformist, Science, Mythical, and Conspiracy Theory. Mixed-model analyses of variance showed that while high-strength believers in both New Age and Traditional Spiritual shifted their reasons-for-belief away from 'just believe' and towards personal experience, only Traditional Spiritual shifted away from 'just believe' to culture. In contrast, for Conspiracy Theory and Mythical, the dominant reason for belief was media, but for Conspiracy Theory only, there was a shift from media to education/personal research for high-strength believers. This demonstrates that although spiritual beliefs are strengthened by personal experience, conspiracy theory beliefs are strengthened by information gathering. Understanding the source of an existing belief is important for debiasing attempts to move people towards beliefs with strong supporting evidence, including greater acceptance of evidence provided by experts, a likely requirement for negotiating global humanitarian emergencies in the not-so-distant future. Statement of Relevance. Beliefs without strong supporting evidence (BWSSE) have been gaining attention in mainstream society; particularly, the sources of information that may contribute to their formation and resistance to correction. Understanding the source of an existing belief is important for debiasing attempts to move people towards beliefs with strong supporting evidence, including greater acceptance of evidence provided by experts, a likely requirement for negotiating global humanitarian emergencies in the not-so-distant future.
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Affiliation(s)
- Judy Cheng
- Department of Psychiatry, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada
| | - Katie M. Lavigne
- Department of Psychiatry, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada
| | - Jessica Khangura
- Department of Psychiatry, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada
- BC Mental Health and Addictions Research Institute, Vancouver, BC, Canada
| | - Abhijit Chinchani
- Department of Psychiatry, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada
- Department of Bioinformatics, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada
- BC Mental Health and Addictions Research Institute, Vancouver, BC, Canada
| | - Maiya Rasheed
- Department of Zoology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada
| | - Bryan K.S. Woodward
- Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada
| | - Hafsa Zahid
- University of Toronto Department of Biomedical Engineering, Canada
| | - Jiaying Zhao
- Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada
- Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada
| | - Ryan Balzan
- College of Education, Psychology & Social Work, Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia
| | - Andrew G. Ryder
- Department of Psychology, University of Concordia, Montreal, QC, Canada
- Culture & Mental Health Research Unit, Jewish General Hospital, Montreal, QC, Canada
| | - Mahesh Menon
- Department of Psychiatry, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada
- Vancouver Coastal Health, Vancouver, BC, Canada
| | - Todd S. Woodward
- Department of Psychiatry, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada
- Department of Bioinformatics, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada
- BC Mental Health and Addictions Research Institute, Vancouver, BC, Canada
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Fouladirad S, Chen LV, Roes M, Chinchani A, Percival C, Khangura J, Zahid H, Moscovitz A, Arreaza L, Wun C, Sanford N, Balzan R, Moritz S, Menon M, Woodward TS. Functional brain networks underlying probabilistic reasoning and delusions in schizophrenia. Psychiatry Res Neuroimaging 2022; 323:111472. [PMID: 35405574 DOI: 10.1016/j.pscychresns.2022.111472] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/22/2021] [Revised: 02/20/2022] [Accepted: 03/28/2022] [Indexed: 10/18/2022]
Abstract
Delusions in schizophrenia are false beliefs that are assigned certainty and not afforded the scrutiny that normally gives rise to doubt, even under conditions of weak evidence. The goal of the current functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study is to identify the brain network(s) involved in gathering information under conditions of weak evidence, in people with schizophrenia experiencing delusions. fMRI activity during probabilistic reasoning in people with schizophrenia experiencing delusions (n = 29) compared to people with schizophrenia not experiencing delusions (n = 41) and healthy controls (n = 41) was observed when participants made judgments based on evidence that weakly or strongly matched (or mismatched) with the focal hypothesis. A brain network involved in visual attention was strongly elicited for conditions of weak evidence for healthy controls and patients not experiencing delusions, but this increase was absent for patients experiencing delusions. This suggests that the state associated with delusions manifests in fMRI as reduced activity in an early visual attentional process whereby weak evidence is incorrectly stamped as conclusive, manifestating as a feeling of fluency and misplaced certainty, short-circuiting the search for evidence, and providing a candidate neural process for 'seeding' delusions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Saman Fouladirad
- BC Mental Health and Substance Use Services, Vancouver, BC, Canada; Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada
| | - Linda V Chen
- BC Mental Health and Substance Use Services, Vancouver, BC, Canada; Faculty of Science, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada
| | - Meighen Roes
- BC Mental Health and Substance Use Services, Vancouver, BC, Canada; Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada
| | - Abhijit Chinchani
- BC Mental Health and Substance Use Services, Vancouver, BC, Canada; Department of Psychiatry, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada
| | - Chantal Percival
- BC Mental Health and Substance Use Services, Vancouver, BC, Canada; Department of Psychiatry, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada
| | - Jessica Khangura
- BC Mental Health and Substance Use Services, Vancouver, BC, Canada; Department of Psychiatry, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada
| | - Hafsa Zahid
- Institute of Biomedical Engineering, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada
| | - Aly Moscovitz
- BC Mental Health and Substance Use Services, Vancouver, BC, Canada; Department of Psychiatry, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada
| | - Leonardo Arreaza
- BC Mental Health and Substance Use Services, Vancouver, BC, Canada; Department of Psychiatry, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada
| | - Charlotte Wun
- BC Mental Health and Substance Use Services, Vancouver, BC, Canada; Department of Psychiatry, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada
| | - Nicole Sanford
- Department of Psychiatry, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada
| | - Ryan Balzan
- College of Education, Psychology & Social Work, Flinders University, Adelaide, SA, Australia
| | - Steffen Moritz
- Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany
| | - Mahesh Menon
- Department of Psychiatry, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada
| | - Todd S Woodward
- BC Mental Health and Substance Use Services, Vancouver, BC, Canada; Department of Psychiatry, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada.
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Roes MM, Yin J, Taylor L, Metzak PD, Lavigne KM, Chinchani A, Tipper CM, Woodward TS. Hallucination-Specific structure-function associations in schizophrenia. Psychiatry Res Neuroimaging 2020; 305:111171. [PMID: 32916453 DOI: 10.1016/j.pscychresns.2020.111171] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/31/2020] [Revised: 08/15/2020] [Accepted: 08/19/2020] [Indexed: 01/13/2023]
Abstract
Combining structural (sMRI) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data in schizophrenia patients with and without auditory hallucinations (9 SZ_AVH, 12 SZ_nAVH), 18 patients with bipolar disorder, and 22 healthy controls, we examined whether cortical thinning was associated with abnormal activity in functional brain networks associated with auditory hallucinations. Language-task fMRI data were combined with mean cortical thickness values from 148 brain regions in a constrained principal component analysis (CPCA) to identify brain structure-function associations predictable from group differences. Two components emerged from the multimodal analysis. The "AVH component" highlighted an association of frontotemporal and cingulate thinning with altered brain activity characteristic of hallucinations among patients with AVH. In contrast, the "Bipolar component" distinguished bipolar patients from healthy controls and linked increased activity in the language network with cortical thinning in the left occipital-temporal lobe. Our findings add to a body of evidence of the biological underpinnings of hallucinations and illustrate a method for multimodal data analysis of structure-function associations in psychiatric illness.
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Affiliation(s)
- Meighen M Roes
- Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada; BC Mental Health and Substance Use Services Research Institute, Provincial Health Services Authority, Vancouver, BC, Canada
| | - John Yin
- BC Mental Health and Substance Use Services Research Institute, Provincial Health Services Authority, Vancouver, BC, Canada; Department of Psychiatry, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada
| | - Laura Taylor
- BC Mental Health and Substance Use Services Research Institute, Provincial Health Services Authority, Vancouver, BC, Canada; Department of Psychiatry, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada
| | - Paul D Metzak
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada
| | - Katie M Lavigne
- Department of Psychiatry, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada
| | - Abhijit Chinchani
- BC Mental Health and Substance Use Services Research Institute, Provincial Health Services Authority, Vancouver, BC, Canada; Department of Psychiatry, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada
| | - Christine M Tipper
- BC Mental Health and Substance Use Services Research Institute, Provincial Health Services Authority, Vancouver, BC, Canada; Department of Psychiatry, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada
| | - Todd S Woodward
- BC Mental Health and Substance Use Services Research Institute, Provincial Health Services Authority, Vancouver, BC, Canada; Department of Psychiatry, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada.
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