Altered posterior mid-cingulate cortex activation during adaptive coding in individuals with schizotypal traits,...

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Psychiatry
• Cognitive Science

Background:

• Anhedonia is a common symptom in schizophrenia, major depressive disorder, and autism spectrum disorder.
• Adaptive coding, the brain's rescaling of neural output to context, is implicated in anhedonia.
• Neural correlates of adaptive coding are underexplored in schizotypal trait (ST), subthreshold depression (SD), and autistic trait (AT).

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare neural correlates of adaptive coding in individuals with ST, SD, and AT versus healthy controls (HC).
• To investigate the relationship between adaptive coding performance and anhedonia symptoms across groups.

Main Methods:

• fMRI study using an adaptive Monetary Incentive Delay Task in 35 ST, 35 SD, 23 AT, and 34 HC.
• Behavioral adaptive coding task and self-report questionnaires for anhedonia.
• Analysis of neural activation during expected value (EV) and outcome value (OV) adaptation.

Main Results:

• ST, SD, and AT groups exhibited hyper-activation in the posterior mid-cingulate cortex (pMCC) during EV adaptation compared to HC.
• SD group showed hyper-activation in the supplementary motor area (SMA) during OV adaptation.
• Neural and behavioral adaptive coding performance correlated with pleasure experience in ST, SD, and AT groups.

Conclusions:

• Shared and distinct aberrant neural patterns of adaptive coding exist in ST, SD, and AT.
• Atypical adaptive coding performance is linked to anhedonia in these subclinical groups.
• Adaptive coding represents a potential target for anhedonia intervention and prevention.