Department of Psychiatry, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Lynch School of Education and Human Development, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts.
Department of Psychiatry, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Biol Psychiatry Cogn Neurosci Neuroimaging. 2023 May;8(5):542-550. doi: 10.1016/j.bpsc.2023.01.010. Epub 2023 Feb 2.
Self-directed performance monitoring is a critical contributor to cognitive performance and general functioning and is impacted by psychiatric symptoms and personality traits, but has been understudied in psychosis-risk states. We have shown that ventral striatum (VS) responds to correctness during cognitive tasks where no explicit feedback is required, and this intrinsic reinforcement response is reduced in schizophrenia.
Here, we examined this phenomenon in youths (n = 796, age range 11-22 years) from the Philadelphia Neurodevelopmental Cohort (PNC) performing a working memory functional magnetic resonance imaging task. We hypothesized that VS would respond to internal correctness monitoring, while classic salience network regions, such as dorsal anterior cingulate cortex and anterior insular cortex, would reflect internal error monitoring and that these responses would increase with age. We expected that neurobehavioral measures of performance monitoring would be reduced in youths with subclinical psychosis spectrum features and would correlate with amotivation severity.
Supporting these hypotheses, we found correct>incorrect activation in VS and incorrect>correct activation in anterior cingulate cortex and anterior insular cortex. Furthermore, VS activation was positively correlated with age, reduced in youths with psychosis spectrum features, and inversely correlated with amotivation. However, these patterns were not significant in anterior cingulate cortex and anterior insular cortex.
These findings advance our understanding of the neural underpinnings of performance monitoring and its impairment in adolescents with psychosis spectrum features. Such understanding can facilitate investigation of the developmental trajectory of normative and aberrant performance monitoring; contribute to early identification of youths at elevated risk for poor academic, occupational, or psychiatric outcomes; and provide potential targets for therapeutic development.
自我导向的表现监测是认知表现和一般功能的关键贡献者，受精神症状和人格特质的影响，但在精神病风险状态下研究较少。我们已经表明，腹侧纹状体（VS）在不需要明确反馈的认知任务中对正确性作出反应，而这种内在的强化反应在精神分裂症中减少。
在这里，我们在费城神经发育队列（PNC）中的年轻人（n=796，年龄范围为 11-22 岁）中检查了这种现象，他们正在进行工作记忆功能磁共振成像任务。我们假设 VS 会对内部正确性监测作出反应，而经典的突显网络区域，如背侧前扣带皮层和前岛叶皮层，会反映内部错误监测，并且这些反应会随着年龄的增长而增加。我们预计，具有亚临床精神病谱特征的年轻人的神经行为表现监测指标会减少，并且与动机缺乏严重程度相关。
支持这些假设，我们发现 VS 中正确>不正确的激活，而前扣带皮层和前岛叶皮层中不正确>正确的激活。此外，VS 的激活与年龄呈正相关，在具有精神病谱特征的年轻人中减少，并且与动机缺乏呈负相关。然而，这些模式在前扣带皮层和前岛叶皮层中并不显著。
这些发现推进了我们对表现监测的神经基础及其在具有精神病谱特征的青少年中的障碍的理解。这种理解可以促进对正常和异常表现监测的发展轨迹的研究；有助于早期识别处于不良学业、职业或精神健康结果风险升高的年轻人；并为治疗开发提供潜在的目标。
