Evidence suggests that individuals with schizophrenia (SZ) report anticipatory pleasure deficits compared to controls and that these deficits are linked to decreased motivation to engage socially. However, these deficits have been identified via self-report measures of hypothetical pleasant stimuli, leaving it unclear whether they exist in reference to actual social situations. To address this issue, we created a live social interaction that minimized the reliance of higher-order cognitive processes. SZ and control participants were told that they would be playing an "enjoyable sharing game" with another study participant (who was actually a confederate) that involved asking and answering questions (36 interpersonal closeness generation questions; Aron et al., 1997). Participants then reported their current mood and the emotions they anticipated experiencing during the pleasant social interaction. Immediately following the interaction, they reported their experienced emotions. We found that the SZ group anticipated more negative emotion ( d = 1.0), but were less accurate in forecasting negative emotion ( d = .81), than controls, and these effects were large. There were small, non-significant group differences in anticipation, experience, and accuracy in forecasting of positive emotion (all d s < .29). Also, social anhedonia was positively correlated with anticipated negative affect and negatively associated with experienced positive emotion. At the same time, controls reported finding the interaction to be a more positive emotional experience overall, d = 0.75. This is the first study to show that "anticipatory pleasure deficits" in SZ might actually be heightened anticipated negative emotion and that inaccurate forecasting could be linked to decreased social motivation.

OF THE THESIS vii APPENDIX A: PRISMA Checklist and Risk of Bias Assessment 33 APPENDIX B: Funnel Plots for All Included Studies 37 APPENDIX C: Moderator Information and Analyses 38vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to express the deepest appreciation to my committee chair, Professor Elizabeth A. Martin, who has supported and guided me through the completion of this project. Without her steadfast and continued encouragement, this thesis would not have been possible. Introduction:There is mixed evidence about emotional processing abnormalities in schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder, with trait self-reports and clinician ratings indicating significant differences between patients and controls, but studies of in-the-moment, self-reported emotional experience finding only small differences between these groups. The current metaanalysis synthesizes statistics from studies measuring the P3 and LPP, two event-related potential (ERP) components sensitive to attentional allocation, to examine whether patients exhibit ERP response abnormalities to neutral and valenced visual stimuli. Methods:Standardized mean amplitudes and standard errors of P3 and/or LPP waveforms (300-2000 ms) in response to neutral and valenced images were calculated for 13 studies (total n=339 individuals with schizophrenia, 331 healthy controls). Results:In response to neutral images, there were very small, non-significant differences in ERP amplitudes between patient and control groups (k=9; Hedges' g=-0.06, 95% CI: -055, 0.43, p=0.81). In contrast, patients showed a small, significant reduction in ERP amplitudes compared to controls in response to negative images (k=13; Hedges' g=-0.32, 95% CI: -0.59, -0.05, viii p=0.02), and a small, but nonsignificant, reduction in amplitudes in response to positive images (k=7; Hedges' g=-0.27, 95% CI: -0.71, 0.18, p=0.24). Conclusions and implications:The current review indicates that compared to controls, patients have slightly diminished P3 and LPP amplitudes in response to positive and negative stimuli.This small reduction may reflect decreased attention allocation, possibly indicating an abnormality during a distinct stage of early processing related to evaluating the motivational salience of a stimulus. ABSTRACT Structured summary2 Provide a structured summary including, as applicable: background; objectives; data sources; study eligibility criteria, participants, and interventions; study appraisal and synthesis methods; results; limitations; conclusions and implications of key findings; systematic review registration number.2

current study. We further explore whether there were earlier selective attention abnormalities in at-risk groups, evidenced by deviant EPN amplitudes.

Motivational abnormalities represent a key area of dysfunction in individuals with, or at risk for, schizophrenia and severely limit broad domains of functioning in these populations. The aberrant salience hypothesis posits that motivational abnormalities are the result of an over-attribution of salience to nonpleasurable stimuli but an under-attribution of salience to pleasurable ones. Consequently, people "want" what they do not "like" but do not "want" what they "like." However, it is unclear how this hypothesis manifests in schizophrenia risk beyond monetary rewards. The current research provided a multimodal investigation of the aberrant salience hypothesis in people with elevated psychotic-like experiences (PLEs) who are at risk for developing psychosis. Study 1 examined the link between liking and incentive salience using a neurobiological indicator of incentive salience (contingent negative variation/CNV) in 23 PLEs and 21 Control participants. The PLEs group showed diminished CNV reactivity to pleasant (vs. neutral) social images, which was driven by an augmented response to neutral stimuli. Study 2 examined liking, incentive salience, and conscious wanting experience using a psychological indicator of incentive salience (positive spontaneous thoughts/PSTs) in 38 PLEs and 246 Control participants. The PLEs group showed diminished correspondence between liking, PSTs, and conscious wanting across diverse reward contexts. Collectively, individuals with PLEs overattribute salience to neutral stimuli and, to a lesser degree, under-attribute salience to rewards. Findings of the current research support abnormal salience attribution as a trait-like feature implicated in the pathophysiology and development of schizophrenia and provide valuable insights on research and treatment of this illness.