BACKGROUND Human beings find social stimuli rewarding, which is thought to facilitate efficient social functioning. Although reward processing has been extensively studied in schizophrenia, a few studies have examined neural processes specifically involved in social reward processing. This study examined neural sensitivity to social and nonsocial rewards in schizophrenia. METHODS Twenty-seven patients with schizophrenia and 25 community controls completed a One-Armed Bandit Task, an implicit reinforcement learning task, in the scanner. There were 2 conditions with an identical trial structure, one with social rewards and the other with nonsocial rewards. The data were analyzed using a region of interest (ROI) approach, focusing on the ventral striatum, ventromedial prefrontal cortex, and anterior cingulate cortex. RESULTS Across all 3 ROIs, patients showed reduced activation for social rewards compared to controls. However, the 2 groups showed comparable levels of activation for nonsocial rewards. Within the patient group, levels of neural activation in these ROIs during the social reward condition were associated with better performance. CONCLUSIONS This study found reduced neural sensitivity in patients with schizophrenia in key reward-processing regions for social but not for nonsocial rewards. These findings suggest a relatively specific social reward-processing deficit in schizophrenia during an implicit reinforcement learning task.

中文翻译：

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精神分裂症对社交奖励和非社交奖励的神经敏感性降低。

背景技术人类发现社交刺激奖励，这被认为有助于有效的社交功能。尽管在精神分裂症中已经广泛地研究了奖赏处理，但是一些研究已经检查了专门参与社会奖赏处理的神经过程。这项研究检查了精神分裂症对社交和非社交奖励的神经敏感性。方法27位精神分裂症患者和25位社区控制患者在扫描仪中完成了一项单臂强盗任务，这是一项隐式的强化学习任务。有两个条件具有相同的审判结构，一个条件具有社会奖励，另一个条件具有非社会奖励。使用感兴趣区域（ROI）方法分析数据，重点关注腹侧纹状体，腹侧前额叶皮层和扣带回前皮层。结果在所有3个ROI中，与对照组相比，患者的社交奖励激活减少。但是，这两组显示出与非社会性奖励相当的激活水平。在患者组中，社交奖励条件期间这些ROI中神经激活的水平与更好的表现有关。结论本研究发现精神分裂症患者在关键奖赏处理区域中对社交而非非社交奖赏的神经敏感性降低。这些发现表明，在隐性强化学习任务中，精神分裂症存在相对特定的社会奖励处理缺陷。在社交奖励条件下，这些ROI中神经激活的水平与更好的表现有关。结论本研究发现精神分裂症患者在关键奖赏处理区域中对社交而非非社交奖赏的神经敏感性降低。这些发现表明，在隐性强化学习任务中，精神分裂症存在相对特定的社会奖励处理缺陷。在社交奖励条件下，这些ROI中神经激活的水平与更好的表现有关。结论本研究发现精神分裂症患者在关键奖赏处理区域中对社交而非非社交奖赏的神经敏感性降低。这些发现表明，在隐性强化学习任务中，精神分裂症存在相对特定的社会奖励处理缺陷。