Spared performance but increased uncertainty in schizophrenia: Evidence from a probabilistic decision-making task

Aberrant uncertainty processing is linked to psychotic-like experiences, autistic traits, and is reflected in pupil dilation during probabilistic learning

“…The positive correlations between subjective volatility in the cued task block and CAPE-P as well as AQ scores (albeit not statistically significant for the latter), align with this interpretation. These results fit well with previous findings of diminished pupil responses to surprise and uncertainty in individuals with autism (Lawson et al, 2017) and schizophrenia (Kreis et al, 2021). Diminished pupil responses may reflect aberrant norepinephrinergic (NE) signaling, which has been proposed to underlie altered uncertainty processing in both autism and schizophrenia (Kreis et al, 2021;Strauss et al, 2013; Van de Cruys et al, 2014).…”

“…CI = confidence interval; block = contrast of the second, cued task block to the first, volatile task block; AQ = Autism Quotient average score; R 2 m = marginal R 2 , i.e. proportion of variance explained by the fixed effects alone; R 2 c = conditional R 2 , i.e., proportion of variance explained by both the fixed and random effects (R 2 m and R 2 c based on Nakagawa & Schielzeth, 2013) (Hämmerer et al, 2019;Kreis et al, 2021) and fit well with the assumption that pupil size as an indicator for LC-NE activity signals neural gain and learning (Eldar et al, 2013;Joshi et al, 2016). Interestingly, the extent to which pupil dilation scaled with choice uncertainty and Bayesian surprise was moderated by questionnaire scores and task block.…”

“…This response possibly reflects an upregulation of neural gain and learning (Eldar et al, 2013) to reduce uncertainty about current task states and update beliefs accordingly. Pupil responses in individuals with autism (Lawson et al, 2017) or schizophrenia (Kreis et al, 2021;Steinhauer et al, 1979;Steinhauer & Zubin, 1982), however, seem to scale less with uncertainty or surprise, suggesting a reduced ability to differentiate events that warrant a belief update from those that do not and to regulate neural gain accordingly. Notably, the extent to which pupil size scales with learning signals, such as choice uncertainty and Bayesian surprise, may depend on the task environment.…”

“…This fits well with accounts linking norepinephrinergic activity in the locus coeruleus (the LC-NE system) to explorative behavior (Aston-Jones & Cohen, 2005), given that contextual change promotes belief updating through exploration and learning. Activity in the LC-NE system can be indexed through pupil size (Joshi et al, 2016;Rajkowski et al, 1994;Samuels & Szabadi, 2008), which in turn has been found to respond to (choice) uncertainty (Kreis et al, 2021;Nassar et al, 2012), volatility (Browning et al, 2015;Lawson et al, 2017), surprise, and belief updating (Hämmerer et al, 2019;Preuschoff et al, 2011). This response possibly reflects an upregulation of neural gain and learning (Eldar et al, 2013) to reduce uncertainty about current task states and update beliefs accordingly.…”

Sweet spot in music—Is predictability preferred among persons with psychotic-like experiences or autistic traits?

“…Explicit ratings can be combined with physiological measure of experienced predictability, like heart rate deceleration [ 96 ]. Perhaps more pertinent are pupillometric measures; for example, pupil dilatation should increase as the musical elements become harder to predict, while still perceived as learnable [ 97 ]. Just as pupil dilation decreases as stimuli become predictable [ 98 ], excessive unpredictability should decrease dilation as it too dissuades learning [ 15 ].…”