Overly Strong Priors for Socially Meaningful Visual Signals Are Linked to Psychosis Proneness in Healthy Individuals
According to the predictive coding theory of psychosis, hallucinations and delusions are explained by an overweighing of high-level prior expectations relative to sensory information that leads to false perceptions of meaningful signals. However, it is currently unclear whether the hypothesized over...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Frontiers Media S.A.
2021-04-01
|
| Series: | Frontiers in Psychology |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.583637/full |
| _version_ | 1819117790193254400 |
|---|---|
| author | Heiner Stuke Elisabeth Kress Veith Andreas Weilnhammer Philipp Sterzer Philipp Sterzer Katharina Schmack |
| author_facet | Heiner Stuke Elisabeth Kress Veith Andreas Weilnhammer Philipp Sterzer Philipp Sterzer Katharina Schmack |
| author_sort | Heiner Stuke |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | According to the predictive coding theory of psychosis, hallucinations and delusions are explained by an overweighing of high-level prior expectations relative to sensory information that leads to false perceptions of meaningful signals. However, it is currently unclear whether the hypothesized overweighing of priors (1) represents a pervasive alteration that extends to the visual modality and (2) takes already effect at early automatic processing stages. Here, we addressed these questions by studying visual perception of socially meaningful stimuli in healthy individuals with varying degrees of psychosis proneness (n = 39). In a first task, we quantified participants’ prior for detecting faces in visual noise using a Bayesian decision model. In a second task, we measured participants’ prior for detecting direct gaze stimuli that were rendered invisible by continuous flash suppression. We found that the prior for detecting faces in noise correlated with hallucination proneness (r = 0.50, p = 0.001, Bayes factor 1/20.1) as well as delusion proneness (r = 0.46, p = 0.003, BF 1/9.4). The prior for detecting invisible direct gaze was significantly associated with hallucination proneness (r = 0.43, p = 0.009, BF 1/3.8) but not conclusively with delusion proneness (r = 0.30, p = 0.079, BF 1.7). Our results provide evidence for the idea that overly strong high-level priors for automatically detecting socially meaningful stimuli might constitute a processing alteration in psychosis. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-22T05:38:35Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-59dcbf96b3cc44ed919190acf87dcbc3 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1664-1078 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-22T05:38:35Z |
| publishDate | 2021-04-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Psychology |
| spelling | doaj.art-59dcbf96b3cc44ed919190acf87dcbc32022-12-21T18:37:15ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Psychology1664-10782021-04-011210.3389/fpsyg.2021.583637583637Overly Strong Priors for Socially Meaningful Visual Signals Are Linked to Psychosis Proneness in Healthy IndividualsHeiner Stuke0Elisabeth Kress1Veith Andreas Weilnhammer2Philipp Sterzer3Philipp Sterzer4Katharina Schmack5Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, GermanyBernstein Center of Computational Neuroscience, Berlin, GermanyDepartment of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, GermanyDepartment of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, GermanyBernstein Center of Computational Neuroscience, Berlin, GermanyDepartment of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, GermanyAccording to the predictive coding theory of psychosis, hallucinations and delusions are explained by an overweighing of high-level prior expectations relative to sensory information that leads to false perceptions of meaningful signals. However, it is currently unclear whether the hypothesized overweighing of priors (1) represents a pervasive alteration that extends to the visual modality and (2) takes already effect at early automatic processing stages. Here, we addressed these questions by studying visual perception of socially meaningful stimuli in healthy individuals with varying degrees of psychosis proneness (n = 39). In a first task, we quantified participants’ prior for detecting faces in visual noise using a Bayesian decision model. In a second task, we measured participants’ prior for detecting direct gaze stimuli that were rendered invisible by continuous flash suppression. We found that the prior for detecting faces in noise correlated with hallucination proneness (r = 0.50, p = 0.001, Bayes factor 1/20.1) as well as delusion proneness (r = 0.46, p = 0.003, BF 1/9.4). The prior for detecting invisible direct gaze was significantly associated with hallucination proneness (r = 0.43, p = 0.009, BF 1/3.8) but not conclusively with delusion proneness (r = 0.30, p = 0.079, BF 1.7). Our results provide evidence for the idea that overly strong high-level priors for automatically detecting socially meaningful stimuli might constitute a processing alteration in psychosis.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.583637/fullface processingperceptual biaspredictive codingpsychosis pronenesshallucinationgaze detection |
| spellingShingle | Heiner Stuke Elisabeth Kress Veith Andreas Weilnhammer Philipp Sterzer Philipp Sterzer Katharina Schmack Overly Strong Priors for Socially Meaningful Visual Signals Are Linked to Psychosis Proneness in Healthy Individuals Frontiers in Psychology face processing perceptual bias predictive coding psychosis proneness hallucination gaze detection |
| title | Overly Strong Priors for Socially Meaningful Visual Signals Are Linked to Psychosis Proneness in Healthy Individuals |
| title_full | Overly Strong Priors for Socially Meaningful Visual Signals Are Linked to Psychosis Proneness in Healthy Individuals |
| title_fullStr | Overly Strong Priors for Socially Meaningful Visual Signals Are Linked to Psychosis Proneness in Healthy Individuals |
| title_full_unstemmed | Overly Strong Priors for Socially Meaningful Visual Signals Are Linked to Psychosis Proneness in Healthy Individuals |
| title_short | Overly Strong Priors for Socially Meaningful Visual Signals Are Linked to Psychosis Proneness in Healthy Individuals |
| title_sort | overly strong priors for socially meaningful visual signals are linked to psychosis proneness in healthy individuals |
| topic | face processing perceptual bias predictive coding psychosis proneness hallucination gaze detection |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.583637/full |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT heinerstuke overlystrongpriorsforsociallymeaningfulvisualsignalsarelinkedtopsychosispronenessinhealthyindividuals AT elisabethkress overlystrongpriorsforsociallymeaningfulvisualsignalsarelinkedtopsychosispronenessinhealthyindividuals AT veithandreasweilnhammer overlystrongpriorsforsociallymeaningfulvisualsignalsarelinkedtopsychosispronenessinhealthyindividuals AT philippsterzer overlystrongpriorsforsociallymeaningfulvisualsignalsarelinkedtopsychosispronenessinhealthyindividuals AT philippsterzer overlystrongpriorsforsociallymeaningfulvisualsignalsarelinkedtopsychosispronenessinhealthyindividuals AT katharinaschmack overlystrongpriorsforsociallymeaningfulvisualsignalsarelinkedtopsychosispronenessinhealthyindividuals |