Blouzard Elodie, Cignetti Fabien, Meyniel Florent, Pouchon Arnaud, Polosan Mircea, Bastin Julien, Dondé Clément
Univ. Grenoble Alpes, Inserm, U1216, CHU Grenoble Alpes, Grenoble Institut Neurosciences, 38000 Grenoble, France.
INSERM-CEA Cognitive Neuroimaging Unit (UNICOG), NeuroSpin Center, CEA Paris-Saclay, Gif-sur-Yvette, France Université de Paris, Paris 91191, France.
Schizophr Res Cogn. 2025 Jul 15;42:100378. doi: 10.1016/j.scog.2025.100378. eCollection 2025 Dec.
Effort allocation is a crucial component of amotivation in schizophrenia. This study investigates the hypothesis that schizophrenia is associated with impairments in dynamic cost/benefit decision-making processes.
We employed a modified version of the effort allocation task developed by Meyniel et al. (2013). Participants were asked to allocate effort during 30-s intervals to maximize their gains. We examined the effects of task difficulty and incentive levels on participants' effort allocation on a trial-by-trial basis.
Individuals with schizophrenia ( = 25) showed decreased capacity to adapt dynamically to task parameters, as compared to healthy controls (N = 25). (1) Both populations increased the duration of each effort based on difficulty. Only healthy controls decreased rest duration based on incentive. The magnitude of these adaptations was significantly decreased in people with schizophrenia (difficulty: d = 1.25, incentive: d = 0.91). (2) Both groups decreased effort re-initiations with increasing difficulty with significant differences in the magnitude of adaptation between groups. (3) Participants with schizophrenia spent less time exerting effort above the required threshold, resulting in lower overall gains compared to healthy controls (η = 0.17).
Individuals with schizophrenia exhibit a selective impairment in effort-cost decision-making. This deficit may contribute to maladaptive behavior patterns characterized by suboptimal effort allocation and reduced goal-direct activities.
努力分配是精神分裂症动机缺乏的一个关键组成部分。本研究调查了精神分裂症与动态成本/收益决策过程受损相关的假设。
我们采用了Meyniel等人（2013年）开发的努力分配任务的修改版本。要求参与者在30秒的时间间隔内分配努力，以实现收益最大化。我们逐次试验地研究了任务难度和激励水平对参与者努力分配的影响。
与健康对照组（N = 25）相比，精神分裂症患者（n = 25）动态适应任务参数的能力下降。（1）两组人群都根据难度增加了每次努力的持续时间。只有健康对照组根据激励减少了休息时间。精神分裂症患者这些适应的幅度显著降低（难度：d = 1.25，激励：d = 0.91）。（2）两组都随着难度增加而减少了努力的重新开始，两组之间适应幅度存在显著差异。（3）与健康对照组相比，精神分裂症患者在超过所需阈值的情况下花费在努力上的时间更少，导致总体收益更低（η = 0.17）。
精神分裂症患者在努力成本决策方面表现出选择性损伤。这种缺陷可能导致以努力分配次优和目标导向活动减少为特征的适应不良行为模式。
