Impairment of perceptual metacognitive accuracy and reduced prefrontal grey matter volume in first-episode psychosis
Geoff Davies, Charlotte L. Rae, Sarah N. Garfinkel, Anil K. Seth, Nick Medford, Hugo Critchley, Kathryn Greenwood
Cognitive Neuropsychiatry February 27, 2018 DOI: 10.1080/13546805.2018.1444597 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Case-control study Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 18 |
| Population | First-episode psychosis patients and matched healthy controls |
| Keywords | Metacognition Cognitive psychology Psychosis Prefrontal cortex Perception Schizophrenia object-oriented programming Audiology Grey matter Voxel-based morphometry Developmental psychology White matter Artificial intelligence |
| Citations | 23 |
| Post-publication review | 1 comment on PubPeer (opens in new tab) · last active October 2018 |
| Key findings | First-episode psychosis patients demonstrated significantly worse metacognitive accuracy than controls, with grey matter volume deficits in the superior frontal gyrus, but no relationship between grey matter volume and metacognitive accuracy was found. |
Abstract
Introduction: Metacognition, or "thinking about thinking", is a higher-order thought process that allows for the evaluation of perceptual processes for accuracy. Metacognitive accuracy is associated with the grey matter volume (GMV) in the prefrontal cortex (PFC), an area also impacted in schizophrenia. The present study set out to investigate whether deficits in metacognitive accuracy are present in the early stages of psychosis.
Methods: Metacognitive accuracy in first-episode psychosis (FEP) was assessed on a perceptual decision-making task and their performance compared to matched healthy control participants (N = 18). A novel signal detection theory approach was used to model metacognitive sensitivity independently from objective perceptual performance. A voxel-based morphometry investigation was also conducted on GMV.
Results: We found that the FEP group demonstrated significantly worse metacognitive accuracy compared to controls (p = .039). Importantly, GMV deficits were also observed in the superior frontal gyrus. The findings suggest a specific deficit in this processing domain to exist at first episode; however, no relationship was found between GMV and metacognitive accuracy.
Conclusions: Our findings support the notion that an inability to accurately scrutinise perception may underpin functional deficits observed in later schizophrenia; however, the exact neural basis of metacognitive deficits in FEP remains elusive.