Background and Hypothesis Exposure to childhood maltreatment—a risk factor for psychosis that 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、童年虐待和偏执狂


背景和假设 童年时期遭受虐待——与偏执狂相关的精神病风险因素——可能会影响一个人对世界的信念以及信念如何更新。我们假设童年时期遭受虐待的风险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，并且这些关系对于威胁相关的虐待最强。此外，我们测试了信念更新是否介导了虐待和偏执狂之间的关系。研究设计 使用 3 个选项概率逆转学习 （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，包括对波动性的先前预期 （μ03）。童年创伤问卷 （CTQ） 用于评估累积的虐待、威胁和剥夺暴露。使用阳性和阴性症状量表 （PANSS） 和修订的 Green 等人偏执思想量表 （R-GPTS） 测量偏执狂。结果 更多地暴露于童年虐待与整个样本和精神分裂症谱系障碍个体对波动性的较高先前预期相关。这是精神分裂症谱系障碍中与威胁相关的虐待所特有的，而不是剥夺。偏执狂与童年时期虐待和先前的波动性有关，但我们没有观察到波动性先验对虐待和偏执狂之间关系的显着间接影响。 结论 我们的研究表明，在童年时期遭受威胁经历的精神分裂症谱系障碍患者希望他们的环境更加不稳定，这可能会促进异常信念的更新并赋予偏执狂的风险。