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Published on: December 2, 2015
Largely Typical Neural Activation During Monetary Reward Receipt in People With Psychosis-Spectrum Disorders and
John R Purcell1,2, Caroline Demro3, Elijah Lahud3
1Minneapolis Veterans Affairs Health Care System, Minneapolis, MN 55417, United States.
Schizophrenia Bulletin
|June 4, 2026
Summary
People with psychosis (PwP) and their relatives show largely typical brain responses during reward receipt, despite some subtle putamen differences in PwP. This suggests intact adaptive reward coding in psychosis spectrum disorders.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Psychiatry
- Cognitive Science
Background:
- Schizophrenia (SZ) is linked to impaired reward-based behavioral adaptation.
- Neural correlates of reward processing deficits in psychosis spectrum disorders and genetic liability are not well understood.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate neural responses during reward receipt in people with psychosis (PwP), their first-degree biological relatives, and controls (CTL).
- To determine if abnormal reward processing is present across the psychosis spectrum and in those with genetic risk.
Main Methods:
- A modified Monetary Incentive Delay task was used with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).
- Behavioral performance and brain activation were compared across 123 PwP, 81 relatives, and 49 CTL.
- Two distinct fMRI preprocessing pipelines were employed to ensure result reliability.
Main Results:
- PwP demonstrated poorer task performance but comparable reaction times to controls and relatives.
- Whole-brain activation during high reward receipt was similar across groups.
- Region of interest analyses showed putamen hyperactivation in PwP, particularly those with SZ.
- Parametrically modulated (pMod) brain activation and Adaptive Coding measures did not differ between groups.
Conclusions:
- Findings suggest largely typical neural responses during reward receipt in PwP and their relatives.
- Subtle putamen differences were observed in PwP, but adaptive reward coding appears largely preserved.
- This indicates intact neural mechanisms for reward processing in psychosis spectrum disorders and genetic liability.
