Greater positive schizotypy relates to reduced N100 activity during rejection scenes

Abstract

Social anxiety due to rejection sensitivity (RS) exacerbates psychosis-like experiences in the general population. While reduced dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) activity during social rejection in high schizotypy has suggested self-distancing from rejection, earlier stages of mental processing such as feature encoding could also contribute to psychosis-like experiences. This study aimed to determine the stage of mental processing of social rejection that relates to positive schizotypy. Forty-one healthy participants were assessed for schizotypy and RS. Event-related potential amplitudes (ERPs) were measured at frontal, temporal and parieto-occipital sites and their cortical sources (dACC, temporal pole and lingual gyrus) at early (N100) and late (P300 and late slow wave, LSW) timeframes during rejection, acceptance and neutral scenes. ERPs were compared between social interaction types. Correlations were performed between positive schizotypy (defined as the presence of perceptual aberrations, hallucinatory experiences and magical thinking), RS and ERPs during rejection. Amplitude was greater during rejection than acceptance or neutral conditions at the dACC-P300, parieto-occipital-P300, dACC-LSW and frontal-LSW. RS correlated positively with positive schizotypy. Reduced dACC N100 activity during rejection correlated with greater positive schizotypy and RS. Reduced dACC N100 activity and greater RS independently predicted positive schizotypy. An N100 deficit that indicates reduced feature encoding of rejection scenes increases with greater positive schizotypy and RS. Higher RS shows that a greater tendency to misattribute ambiguous social situations as rejecting also increases with positive schizotypy. These two processes, namely primary bottom-up sensory processing and secondary misattribution of rejection, combine to increase psychosis-like experiences.SCHIZOTYPY AND REJECTION SENSITIVITY 3

The relation between schizotypy and early attention to rejecting interactions: The influence of neuroticism

“…RS also relates to schizotypy at the normal end of the schizophrenia spectrum (Meehl 1962 ; Lenzenweger 1993 ; Premkumar et al. 2014 ). Studying this association within the normal population has predictive value, because (a) individuals scoring highly on schizotypy resemble schizophrenia patients on social isolation and non-responsiveness to others’ moods (Kwapil et al.…”

Schizotypal traits and their relation to rejection sensitivity in the general population: Their mediation by quality of life, agreeableness and neuroticism

“…In the current sample, the mean score was comparable to that of a normative sample (Berenson et al, 2009). The scale had good internal reliability in the current sample (Table 1) and in another sample of British University students (Premkumar et al, 2014). Higher RS relates to greater attention interference by rejection-related words in an emotional Stroop task (Berenson et al, 2009), and signifies good construct validity.…”

Exploring electrophysiological correlates of social cognition in subclinical schizotypy

“…P300 also related positively to negative schizotypy and interacted with neuroticism such that the correlation was stronger in those with greater neuroticism. In another study, Premkumar and colleagues did not find a relationship between P300 and schizotypy, but using source analysis found that reduced early dorsal anterior cingulate cortex activity (N100) during social rejection scenes correlated with positive schizotypy, suggesting reduced early feature encoding may contribute to social misattributions and rejection sensitivity in positive schizotypy.…”

“…If schizotypy is actually a looser collection of relatively independent vulnerabilities, any single grouping variable may obscure them all. This is a widely recognized problem in schizophrenia research and has influenced dimensional approaches to schizotypy research . Similarly, group differences in overall cognitive efficiency may interact with differences in the demands of the eliciting stimulus conditions, further obscuring individual differences.…”

“…This is a widely recognized problem in schizophrenia research 47,48 and has influenced dimensional approaches to schizotypy research. 38,39 Similarly, group differences in overall cognitive efficiency may interact with differences in the demands of the eliciting stimulus conditions, further obscuring individual differences. The solutions to this problem are (1) a within-group correlational design sensitive to individual differences in ERPs, cognition and social functioning, within a broadly defined schizotypal sample representing a range of schizotypal characteristics, and (2) a minimaldemand eliciting task, requiring only passive attention to eliciting stimuli.…”