Cross-modality evidence for reduced choice history biases in psychosis prone individuals

Abstract

Background. Predictive processing posits that perception emerges from inferential processes within a hierarchical cortical system. Alterations of these processes may result in psychotic experiences, such as hallucinations and delusions. Central to the predictive processing account of psychosis is the notion of aberrant weights attributed to prior information and sensory input across the cortical hierarchy. Specifically, aberrant perceptual inference in psychosis has been proposed to result from decreased reliance on priors at low hierarchical levels. Study Design. We investigated the relationship between choice history biases in perceptual decision-making - as a proxy for low-level priors - and psychosis proneness in the general population. Choice history biases and their adaptation to experimentally induced changes in stimulus serial dependencies were investigated in decision-making tasks with auditory (Experiment 1) and visual (Experiment 2) stimuli. We further explored a potential compensatory mechanism for reduced choice history biases by higher-level priors based on predictive cross-modal cues. Results. In line with our preregistered hypothesis, psychosis proneness was associated with decreased choice history biases in both experiments. This association generalized across conditions with and without stimulus serial dependencies. A compensatory reliance on high-level beliefs in psychosis prone individuals was observed in Experiment 2, but not in Experiment 1.Conclusions. Our results support the notion of imprecise low-level priors in psychosis proneness, in line with predictive processing accounts of psychosis. A compensatory mechanism between low- and higher-level beliefs is not supported unequivocally by our data.