School of Psychology, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia.
Neurosci Biobehav Rev. 2017 Sep;80:223-239. doi: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2017.05.024. Epub 2017 Jun 7.
"Delusions" are beliefs that are false and persistent. It is suggested here that these characteristics can emerge from interplays between two fundamental learning processes: (1) the allocation of attentional resources among stimuli; and (2) the effects of feedback on learning. The former of these has been operationalized in the learned irrelevance and latent inhibition paradigms; the latter in studies of the effects of persistence-training. Normally, the attentional process functions to constrain persistence-training effects so that only valid associations acquire persistence. But when persistence-training is less influenced in this way, its mechanisms can interact with a noisy environment to gradually insulate maladaptive associations from disconfirming feedback. When unchecked, these dynamics likely lead to a systematic distortion of beliefs that can become increasingly persistent regardless of their validity. Delusions are therefore predicted to tend to arise whenever the balance of (1) is weakened in favour of (2), whether by experimental manipulation, trait-related factors, cultural causes or evolutionary history. Existing evidence is consistent with the model and further implications are discussed.
“妄想”是指错误且持久的信念。这里提出，这些特征可能源于两种基本学习过程的相互作用：（1）注意力资源在刺激之间的分配；以及（2）反馈对学习的影响。前者在习得性无关和潜伏抑制范式中得到了体现；后者则在关于持续训练效果的研究中得到了体现。通常，注意力过程的作用是限制持续训练效果，以便只有有效的关联才能保持持久。但是，当持续训练受到的这种影响较小，其机制就可以与嘈杂的环境相互作用，逐渐使适应不良的关联免受否定反馈的影响。如果不受控制，这些动态很可能导致信念的系统扭曲，无论其有效性如何，这些信念都会变得越来越持久。因此，无论是否通过实验操作、特质相关因素、文化原因还是进化史，只要（1）的平衡有利于（2），就可能出现妄想。现有证据与该模型一致，并进一步讨论了其影响。
