Background and Hypothesis Exposure to childhood maltreatment—a risk factor for psychosis is associated with paranoia—may impact one’s beliefs about the world and how beliefs are updated. We hypothesized that increased exposure to childhood maltreatment is related to volatility-related belief updating, specifically higher expectations of volatility, and that these relationships are strongest for threat-related maltreatment. Additionally, we tested whether belief updating mediates the relationship between maltreatment and paranoia. Study Design Belief updating was measured in 75 patients with schizophrenia-spectrum disorders and 76 nonpsychiatric controls using a 3-option probabilistic reversal learning (3PRL) task. A Hierarchical Gaussian Filter (HGF) was used to estimate computational parameters of belief updating, including prior expectations of volatility (μ03). The Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ) was used to assess cumulative maltreatment, threat, and deprivation exposure. Paranoia was measured using the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) and the revised Green et al. Paranoid Thoughts Scale (R-GPTS). Results Greater exposure to childhood maltreatment is associated with higher prior expectations of volatility in the whole sample and in individuals with schizophrenia-spectrum disorders. This was specific to threat-related maltreatment, rather than deprivation, in schizophrenia-spectrum disorders. Paranoia was associated with both exposure to childhood maltreatment and volatility priors, but we did not observe a significant indirect effect of volatility priors on the relationship between maltreatment and paranoia. Conclusions Our study suggests that individuals with schizophrenia-spectrum disorders who were exposed to threatening experiences during childhood expect their environment to be more volatile, potentially facilitating aberrant belief updating and conferring risk for paranoia.

中文翻译：

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精神分裂症谱系障碍中的信念更新、童年虐待和偏执


背景和假设 童年时期遭受虐待（与偏执有关的精神病的危险因素）可能会影响一个人对世界的信念以及信念的更新方式。我们假设，儿童遭受虐待的机会增加与波动性相关的信念更新有关，特别是对波动性的更高预期，并且这些关系对于与威胁相关的虐待最为强烈。此外，我们还测试了信念更新是否介导虐待和偏执之间的关系。研究设计 使用三选项概率逆转学习 (3PRL) 任务对 75 名精神分裂症谱系障碍患者和 76 名非精神病对照患者进行信念更新测量。分层高斯滤波器（HGF）用于估计信念更新的计算参数，包括波动率的先验期望（μ03）。儿童创伤问卷 (CTQ) 用于评估累积的虐待、威胁和剥夺经历。使用阳性和阴性综合症量表（PANSS）和修订后的 Green 等人来测量偏执狂。偏执思维量表（R-GPTS）。结果 童年时期遭受虐待的经历越多，与整个样本和患有精神分裂症谱系疾病的个体的波动性较高的先前预期相关。这是针对精神分裂症谱系疾病中与威胁相关的虐待，而不是剥夺。偏执与童年时期遭受虐待和波动性先验有关，但我们没有观察到波动性先验对虐待和偏执之间关系的显着间接影响。 结论 我们的研究表明，患有精神分裂症谱系障碍的人在童年时期接触过威胁性经历，预计他们的环境会更加不稳定，可能会促进异常的信念更新并带来偏执的风险。