Social aversive conditioning in youth at clinical high risk for psychosis and with psychosis: An ERP study

Abstract Background Social cognition and emotion processing are compromised in schizophrenia. Disruptions in these domains may also be present during the psychosis-risk state. Aversiveconditioning is an established translational researchparadigm to investigate affective reactivity and learning. Using an aversiveconditioning ERP paradigm with social cues, we examined whether psychosispatients and at-risk youths differentially respond to aversivelyconditioned faces. Methods Participants (ages 10–30) were enrolled into three demographically-matched groups: clinical risk for psychosis(CR, n = 32), psychosis(PS, n = 26), and healthy control (HC, n = 33). EEGs were recorded during a delay aversiveconditioning task in which three neutral faces were paired with an aversivetone at 100%, 50% and 0% contingencies. Analysis focused on group differences in ERP peaks representing visual processing(occipital P120), emotional valence (frontal VPP), and directed attention (parietal-occipital P300), for dimensions of aversiveness(100% vs. 0%) and unpredictability (50% vs. 100% + 0%). Results HC, but not CR or PS, showed increased P300 amplitude to aversivevs. non- aversiveconditioned stimuli. CR, but not PS or HC, showed increased VPP amplitude to unpredictable vs. predictable stimuli. Conclusions PS and CR both fail to allocate appropriate salience to social cuesthat are predictably aversive. CR, but not PS exhibit heightened emotional reactivity to social cuesthat are of uncertain salience. Clinical risk for schizophrenia may involve neural abnormalities distinct from both healthy and fully-established disease states.