Neural responses to criticism and praise vary with schizotypy and perceived emotional support

Abstract

Schizotypy is a latent organisation of a cluster of personality styles, such as magical thinking, disorganisation and anhedonia, which are in the normal range of the psychosis continuum. Schizotypy relates to an increased likelihood of perceiving expressed emotion (EE). EE is characterised by criticism, rejection, and emotional over-involvement and less warmth from a close relative. Neuroimaging studies have found normal frontal lobe activation to EE-criticism in people with high schizotypy. Alternatively, electroencephalography measures emotion processing, such as frontal theta power and occipital alpha. Frontal theta power responds to cognitive and affective processes and occipital alpha power denotes less consciousness and emotional attention. This study aimed to determine the relation of these electroencephalography responses during criticism and praise to perceived emotional support. Participants (n=32) representing the full (low-to-high) range of positive schizotypy listened to and rated the self-relevance of EE-like criticism and praise and affectively neutral comments while undergoing electroencephalography. Participants completed self-report measures of schizotypy, depression and anxiety. A subset of those with a high positive schizotypy score (n=22) completed a measure of perceived EE-lack of emotional support. Higher perceived EE-lack of emotional support correlated with lower frontal theta power and lower occipital alpha power during criticism and praise in schizotypal participants. The findings suggest that these neural responses may relate to less perceived emotional support in people with high schizotypy, of which a reduction of frontal theta power denotes less emotional arousal and lower occipital alpha power denotes more alertness to emotional information.

Classification of Low and High Schizotypy Levels via Evaluation of Brain Connectivity

“…Our results are consistent with those of previous studies. 16,19,21 However, in contrast to Ref. 18 , we found a minor difference in occipital connectivity patterns and we observed significant differences in interhemispheric connectivities between HS and LS groups.…”

“…14 Recent research has examined the EEG signals of individuals with high schizotypy (HS) in resting state [15][16][17][18][19] and during emotion and attention tasks. [20][21][22][23][24] Fuggetta et al 15 focused on power spectra of different EEG frequency bands and showed that HS participants elicited increased regional alpha oscillations. This abnormality suggested high-level attention in the HS group.…”

“…Based on Oestreich et al 20 , non-clinical HS individuals fail to suppress the N1 auditory evoked potential while listening to self-generated speech, a response style that is similar to those of schizophrenia patients. One study 21 suggested that diminished frontal theta and occipital alpha powers while listening to criticism and praise covary with perceived lack of emotional support in HS individuals. These diminished EEG signals correspond to less emotional arousal and more consciousness of emotional information, respectively.…”

“…It is hypothesized that reduced DTF between prefrontal/frontal regions and parieto-occipital regions can be used to classify HS and LS groups based on previous research. [19][20][21]…”

Scenario-specific aberrations of social reward processing in dimensional schizotypy and psychopathy

“…Existing work testing links between these traits and social reward processing has evidenced reduced responsivity to praise in schizotypy 21 , heightened feelings of social anhedonia related to reduced wanting of social interaction across the schizotypy continuum 22 , and increased subjective experience of Admiration and Negative Social Potency in dimensional psychopathy 9 . However, no work to-date has investigated similarities in social reward processing across these dimensions.…”