Schüller Thomas, Fischer Adrian G, Gruendler Theo O J, Baldermann Juan Carlos, Huys Daniel, Ullsperger Markus, Kuhn Jens
University of Cologne, Faculty of Medicine and University Hospital Cologne, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Cologne, Germany.
Otto von Guericke University, Center for Behavioral Brain Sciences, Magdeburg, Germany; Freie Universität Berlin, Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Berlin, Germany.
Cortex. 2020 May;126:39-48. doi: 10.1016/j.cortex.2019.12.027. Epub 2020 Jan 24.
Tourette syndrome is a neurodevelopmental disorder putatively associated with a hyperdopaminergic state. Therefore, it seems plausible that excessive dopamine transmission in Tourette syndrome alters the ability to learn based on rewards and punishments. We tested whether Tourette syndrome patients exhibited altered reinforcement learning and corresponding feedback-related EEG deflections.
We used a reinforcement learning task providing factual and counterfactual feedback in a sample of 15 Tourette syndrome patients and matched healthy controls whilst recording EEG. The paradigm presented various reward probabilities to enforce adaptive adjustments. We employed a computational model to derive estimates of the prediction error, which we used for single-trial regression analysis of the EEG data.
We found that Tourette syndrome patients showed increased choice stochasticity compared to controls. The feedback-related negativity represented an axiomatic prediction error for factual feedback and did not differ between groups. We observed attenuated P3a modulation specifically for factual feedback in Tourette syndrome patients, representing impaired coding of attention allocation.
Our findings indicate that cortical prediction error coding is unaffected by Tourette syndrome. Nonetheless, the transfer of learned values into choice formation is degraded, in line with a hyperdopaminergic state.
抽动秽语综合征是一种神经发育障碍，可能与多巴胺能亢进状态有关。因此，抽动秽语综合征中多巴胺传递过多改变基于奖惩的学习能力似乎是合理的。我们测试了抽动秽语综合征患者是否表现出强化学习改变以及相应的与反馈相关的脑电图偏转。
我们使用了一项强化学习任务，在15名抽动秽语综合征患者和匹配的健康对照样本中提供事实性和反事实性反馈，同时记录脑电图。该范式呈现了各种奖励概率以促使适应性调整。我们采用了一个计算模型来推导预测误差的估计值，用于对脑电图数据进行单次试验回归分析。
我们发现，与对照组相比，抽动秽语综合征患者表现出更高的选择随机性。与反馈相关的负波代表了事实性反馈的公理预测误差，两组之间没有差异。我们观察到，抽动秽语综合征患者中，特别是针对事实性反馈的P3a调制减弱，这表明注意力分配的编码受损。
我们的研究结果表明，皮层预测误差编码不受抽动秽语综合征影响。尽管如此，与多巴胺能亢进状态一致，习得值向选择形成的转换受到损害。
