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Reward motivation adaptation in people with negative schizotypal features: development of a novel behavioural paradigm and identifying its neural correlates using resting-state functional connectivity analysis

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Abstract

Reward motivation in individuals with high levels of negative schizotypal traits (NS) has been found to be lower than that in their counterparts. But it is unclear that whether their reward motivation adaptively changes with external effort-reward ratio, and what resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) is associated with this change. Thirty-five individuals with high levels of NS and 44 individuals with low levels of NS were recruited. A 3T resting-state functional brain scan and a novel reward motivation adaptation behavioural task were administrated in all participants. The behavioural task was manipulated with three conditions (effort > reward condition vs. effort < reward condition vs. effort = reward condition). Under each condition were rated ‘wanting’ and ‘liking’ for rewards. The seed-based voxel-wise rsFC analysis was conducted to explore the rsFCs associated with the ‘wanting’ and ‘liking’ ratings in individuals with high levels of NS. ‘Wanting’ and ‘liking’ ratings of individuals with high levels of NS significantly declined in the effort > reward condition but did not rebound as high as their counterparts in the effort < reward condition. The rsFCs in NS group associated with these ratings were altered. The altered rsFCs in NS group involved regions in the prefrontal lobe, dopaminergic brain regions (ventral tegmental area, substantia nigra), hippocampus, thalamus and cerebellum. Individuals with high levels of NS manifested their reward motivation adaptation impairment as a failure of adjustment adaptively during effort-reward imbalance condition and altered rsFCs in prefrontal, dopaminergic and other brain regions.

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the CAS Key Laboratory of Mental Health, Institute of Psychology, the Scientific Foundation of Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (E2CX3415CX), and Philip K. H. Wong Foundation. We also thank Miss Hui Wang for her help in revision editing.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Neuropsychology and Applied Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory, CAS Key Laboratory of Mental Health, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 16 Lincui Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing, 100101, People’s Republic of China

    Yong-jie Yan, Hui-xin Hu, Yi-jing Zhang, Ling-ling Wang, Yi-ming Pan, Jia Huang & Raymond C. K. Chan

  2. Sino-Danish College of University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, People’s Republic of China

    Yong-jie Yan & Raymond C. K. Chan

  3. Sino-Danish Centre for Education and Research, Beijing, People’s Republic of China

    Yong-jie Yan

  4. Department of Psychology, The University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, People’s Republic of China

    Hui-xin Hu, Yi-jing Zhang, Ling-ling Wang, Yi-ming Pan, Jia Huang & Raymond C. K. Chan

  5. Department of Psychiatry, School of Clinical Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region , People’s Republic of China

    Simon S. Y. Lui

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Y-jY conceptualization, methodology, software, data collection and analysis, writing-original draft preparation. H-xH, Y-jZ, L-lW, Y-mP data collection. SSYL writing-reviewing and editing. JH conceptualization, methodology, supervision, writing-reviewing and editing. RCKC conceptualization, supervision, writing- reviewing and editing.

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Correspondence to Jia Huang or Raymond C. K. Chan.

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Yan, Yj., Hu, Hx., Zhang, Yj. et al. Reward motivation adaptation in people with negative schizotypal features: development of a novel behavioural paradigm and identifying its neural correlates using resting-state functional connectivity analysis. Eur Arch Psychiatry Clin Neurosci (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00406-023-01640-8

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