Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-q99xh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T18:48:05.308Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A failure of conflict to modulate dual-stream processing may underlie the formation and maintenance of delusions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 April 2020

W.J. Speechley ,
C.B. Murray ,
R.M. McKay ,
M.T. Munz  and
E.T.C. Ngan
W.J. Speechley
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, The University of British Columbia, 2C1- 2255 Wesbrook Mall, Vancouver B.C., V6T 2A1, Canada
C.B. Murray
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, The University of British Columbia, 2C1- 2255 Wesbrook Mall, Vancouver B.C., V6T 2A1, Canada
R.M. McKay
Affiliation:
Faculty of Health Sciences, Simon Fraser University, Blusson Hall, Room 11300, 8888 University Drive, Burnaby, B.C., V5A 1S6, Canada
M.T. Munz
Affiliation:
Faculty of Medicine, The University of Rostock, Shillingallee 35, D-18057, Rostock, Germany
E.T.C. Ngan*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, The University of British Columbia, 2C1- 2255 Wesbrook Mall, Vancouver B.C., V6T 2A1, Canada
*
*Corresponding author. Tel.: (+1) 604-822-0737; fax: (+1) 604 822-7756. E-mail address: eltonngan@gmail.com (E.T.C. Ngan).
Get access

Abstract

Background

Dual-stream information processing proposes that reasoning is composed of two interacting processes: a fast, intuitive system (Stream 1) and a slower, more logical process (Stream 2). In non-patient controls, divergence of these streams may result in the experience of conflict, modulating decision-making towards Stream 2, and initiating a more thorough examination of the available evidence. In delusional schizophrenia patients, a failure of conflict to modulate decision-making towards Stream 2 may reduce the influence of contradictory evidence, resulting in a failure to correct erroneous beliefs.

Method

Delusional schizophrenia patients and non-patient controls completed a deductive reasoning task requiring logical validity judgments of two-part conditional statements. Half of the statements were characterized by a conflict between logical validity (Stream 2) and content believability (Stream 1).

Results

Patients were significantly worse than controls in determining the logical validity of both conflict and non-conflict conditional statements. This between groups difference was significantly greater for the conflict condition.

Conclusions

The results are consistent with the hypothesis that delusional schizophrenia patients fail to use conflict to modulate towards Stream 2 when the two streams of reasoning arrive at incompatible judgments. This finding provides encouraging preliminary support for the Dual-Stream Modulation Failure model of delusion formation and maintenance.

Keywords

DelusionsSchizophreniaDecision-makingLogicIntuition
Type
Original articles
Information
European Psychiatry , Volume 25 , Issue 2 , March 2010 , pp. 80 - 86
Copyright
Copyright © Elsevier Masson SAS 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

American Psychiatric Association. Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders. 4th ed. American Psychiatric Association; 1994.Google Scholar
Ammons, R.B., Ammons, C.H.The quick test (QT) provisional manual. Psychol Rep 1962; 11: 111–161.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brett-Jones, J., Garety, P.A., Hemsley, D.R.Measuring delusional experiences: a method and its application. Br J Clin Psychol 1987; 26: 257–265.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Carter, C.S., Mintun, M., Nichols, T., Cohen, J.D.Anterior cingulate gyrus dysfunction and selective attention deficits in schizophrenia: [15O]H2O PET study during single-trial Stroop task performance. Am J Psychiatry 1997; 154: 1670–1675.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
De Neys, W.Dual processing in reasoning: two systems by one reasoner. Psychol Sci 2006; 17: 428–433.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Epstein, S.Integration of the cognitive and the psychodynamic unconscious. Am Psychol 1994; 49: 709–724.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Evans, B.T. St, Barston, J.L., Pollard, P.On the conflict between logic and belief in syllogistic reasoning. Mem Cognit 1983; 11: 295–306.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Evans, B.T. StBiases in human reasoning: causes and consequences. Erlbaum; 1989.Google Scholar
Frith, C.D., Frith, U.The neural basis of mentalizing. Neuron 1979; 50: 531–534.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Garety, P.A., Freeman, D.Cognitive approaches to delusions: a critical review of theories and evidence. Br J Clin Psychol 1999; 38: 113–154.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Garety, P.A., Hemsley, D.R., Wessely, S.Reasoning in deluded schizophrenic and paranoid patients: Biases in performance on a probabilistic inference task. J Nerv Ment Dis 1991; 179: 194–201.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Goel, V., Bartolo, A., St Clair, D.et al. Logical reasoning deficits in schizophrenia. Schizophr Res 2004; 66: 87–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goel, V., Dolan, R.J.Explaining modulation of reasoning by belief. Cognition 2003; 87: B11–B22.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gorman, M.E.Error, falsification and scientific inference: An experimental investigation. Q J Exp Psychol 1989; 41: 385–412.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heinrichs, W., Zakzanis, K.K.Neurocognitive deficit in schizophrenia: a quantitative review of the evidence. Neuropsychology 1998; 12: 426–445.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hollingshead, A.Two-factor index of social position. Yale University Press; 1957.Google Scholar
Holt, D.J., Titone, D., Long, S.L.et al. The misattribution of salience in delusional patients with schizophrenia. Schizophr Res 2006; 83: 247–256.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Johnson-Selfridge, M., Zalewski, C.Moderator variables of executive functioning in schizophrenia meta-analytic findings. Schizophr Bull. 2001; 27: 305–316.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kahneman, D.A perspective on judgment and choice: Mapping bounded rationality. Am Psychol 2003; 58: 697–720.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kingdon, D.G., Turkington, D.The use of cognitive behavior therapy with a normalizing rationale in schizophrenia. J Nerv Ment Dis 1991; 179: 207–211.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Laurens, K.R., Ngan, E.T., Bates, A.T., Kiehl, K.A., Liddle, P.F.Rostral anterior cingulate cortex dysfunction during error processing in schizophrenia. Neuroimage 2003; 20: 889–897.Google Scholar
Liddle, P.F., Ngan, E.T.-C., Duffield, G.et al. The Signs and Symptoms of Psychotic Illness: A rating scale. Br J Psychiatry 2002; 180: 45–50.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Morley, N.J., Evans JStBT, , Handley, S.J.Belief bias and figural bias in syllogistic reasoning. Q J Exp Psychol. 2004; 57A: 666–692.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nelson, HENational adult reading test (NART): test manual. NFER-Nelson; 1982.Google Scholar
Sharpe, K., O’Carroll, R.Estimating premorbid intellectual level in dementia using the National Adult Reading Test: a Canadian study. Br J Clin Psychol 1991; 30: 381–384.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Speechley, W.J., Ngan, E.T.C.Dual-stream modulation failure: a novel hypothesis for the formation and maintenance of delusions in schizophrenia. Med Hypotheses 2008; 70: 1210–1214.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tversky, A., Kahneman, D.Judgment under uncertainty: heuristics and biases. Science 1974; 185: 1124–1131.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wason, P.C.On the failure to eliminate hypotheses in a conceptual task. Q J Exp Psychol 1960; 12: 129–140.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Woodward, T.S., Moritz, S., Chen, E.Y.H.The contribution of a cognitive bias against disconfirmatory evidence (BADE) to delusions: a study in an Asian sample with first episode schizophrenia spectrum disorders. Schizophr Res 2006; 83: 297–298.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Woodward, T.S., Moritz, S., Cuttler, C., Whitman, J.The contribution of a cognitive bias against disconfirmatory evidence (BADE) to delusions in schizophrenia. J Clin Exp Neuropsychol 2006; 28: 605–617.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Submit a response

Comments

No Comments have been published for this article.