Patterns of evidence integration in schizophrenia and delusion

Abstract

Previous studies documented a bias against disconfirmatory evidence (BADE) in patients affected by schizophrenia spectrum disorders, with some discrepant findings on its relationship with delusions. In order to further investigate the patterns of evidence integration in schizophrenia and delusion, we recruited 40 deluded and non-deluded patients with schizophrenia and 40 healthy control subjects. Participants were administered the BADE test, which consisted of 30 delusion-neutral scenarios, each one progressively described by three subsequent disambiguating statements and providing four types of interpretation to rate for plausibility; at every additional evidence presentation, participants were asked to adjust their ratings. In contrast to previous works, patients displayed both a BADE and a bias against confirmatory evidence (BACE) relative to healthy subjects, as they reduced plausibility ratings on incorrect interpretations and increased plausibility ratings on correct interpretation significantly less over trial progress. Moreover, BACE and BADE measures showed to discriminate differentially control from schizophrenia participants and delusional from non-delusional patients.