Salience processing in schizophrenia
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Salience processing in schizophrenia
IRAS ID
123716
Contact name
Cristina Martinelli
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust
Research summary
This project aims to extend the study of the functional role of dopamine to novelty processing, intrinsic motivation and sense of agency, as mechanisms potentially contributing to the formation and maintenance of symptoms in schizophrenia. In Study 1, a new model of novelty processing, thought to be implicated in patients’ hyperdopaminergia (i.e., increased dopamine activity), will be investigated by measuring the BOLD responses (i.e., an index of neural activity) to parametric manipulations of novelty in key areas during both encoding and retrieval of visual stimuli. Also, the effects of contextual novelty on memory formation and reward processing will be investigated in relation to the model. Study 2 will focus on the possibility that due to altered dopaminergic signalling, patients may be more motivated to be “right“ (intrinsic motivation) and to maintain their beliefs even in the face of disconfirmatory evidence. This will be investigated with a decision-making task performed inside of the fMRI scanner. Study 3 will investigate impairments in the sense of authorship of actions in schizophrenia by using a force-match paradigm. In particular, the study will try to examine the effects of reward on sense of agency and will try to dissociate the differential contribution of predictive and postdictive mechanisms to alterations of sense of agency in schizophrenia.
REC name
London - Chelsea Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
13/LO/0424
Date of REC Opinion
20 May 2013
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion