Journal
PSYCHOLOGICAL MEDICINE
Volume 48, Issue 9, Pages 1474-1483Publisher
CAMBRIDGE UNIV PRESS
DOI: 10.1017/S0033291717002926
Keywords
Anhedonia; avolition; emotion-behaviour decoupling; schizophrenia; schizotypy; unaffected relatives
Categories
Funding
- National Science Fund China [81571317]
- National Basic Research Programme of China (Precision psychiatry Programme) [2016YFC0906402]
- Beijing Training Project for the Leading Talents in Science and Technology [Z151100000315020]
- Beijing Municipal Science & Technology Commission Grant [Z161100000216138]
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Background. The neuropsychological origins of negative syndrome of schizophrenia remain elusive. Evidence from behavioural studies, which utilised emotion-inducing pictures to elicit motivated behaviour generally reported that that schizophrenia patients experienced similar affective experience as healthy individuals but failed to translate emotional salience to motivated behaviour, a phenomenon called emotion-behaviour decoupling. However, a few studies have examined emotion-behaviour decoupling in non-psychotic high-risk populations, who are relatively unaffected by medication effects. Methods. In this study, we examined the nature and extent of emotion-behaviour decoupling in in three independent samples (65 schizophrenia patients v. 63 controls; 40 unaffected relatives v. 45 controls; and 32 individuals with social anhedonia v. 32 controls). We administered an experimental task to examine their affective experience and its coupling with behaviour, using emotion-inducing slides, and allowed participants to alter stimulus exposure using button-pressing to seek pleasure or avoid aversion. Results. Schizophrenia patients reported similar affective experiences as their controls, while their unaffected relatives and individuals with high levels of social anhedonia exhibited attenuated affective experiences, in particular in the arousal aspect. Compared with their respective control groups, all of the three groups showed emotion-behaviour decoupling. Conclusions. Our findings support that both genetically and behaviourally high-risk groups exhibit emotion-behaviour decoupling. The familial association apparently supports its role as a putative trait marker for schizophrenia.
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