Psychiatric symptoms influence reward-seeking and loss-avoidance decision-making through common and distinct computational processes

Aim Psychiatric symptoms are often accompanied by impairments in decision-making to attain rewards and avoid losses. However, due to the complex nature of mental disorders (e.g., high comorbidity), symptoms that are specifically associated with deficits in decision-making remain unidentified. Furthermore, the influence of psychiatric symptoms on computations underpinning reward-seeking and loss-avoidance decision-making remains elusive. Here, we aim to address these issues by leveraging a large-scale online experiment and computational modeling. Methods In the online experiment, we recruited 1900 non-diagnostic participants from the general population. They performed either a reward-seeking or loss-avoidance decision-making task, and subsequently completed questionnaires about psychiatric symptoms. Results We found that one trans-diagnostic dimension of psychiatric symptoms related to compulsive behavior and intrusive thought (CIT) was negatively correlated with overall decision-making performance in both the reward-seeking and loss-avoidance tasks. A deeper analysis further revealed that, in both tasks, the CIT psychiatric dimension was associated with lower preference for the options that recently led to better outcomes (i.e. reward or no-loss). On the other hand, in the reward-seeking task only, the CIT dimension was associated with lower preference for recently unchosen options. Conclusion These findings suggest that psychiatric symptoms influence the two types of decision-making, reward-seeking and loss-avoidance, through both common and distinct computational processes.

Automated summary

This study found that a trans-diagnostic dimension of psychiatric symptoms related to compulsive behavior and intrusive thought was negatively correlated with overall decision-making performance in both reward-seeking and loss-avoidance tasks. Further analysis revealed that this psychiatric dimension was associated with lower preference for options that recently led to better outcomes in both tasks. These findings suggest that psychiatric symptoms influence decision-making processes for seeking rewards and avoiding losses through both common and distinct computational processes.