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. 2025 May 8;51(3):646-657.
doi: 10.1093/schbul/sbae057.

Belief Updating, Childhood Maltreatment, and Paranoia in Schizophrenia-Spectrum Disorders

Ali F Sloan  1 , Andrew R Kittleson  1 , Lénie J Torregrossa  2 , Brandee Feola  1 , Rosa Rossi-Goldthorpe  3 , Philip R Corlett  3 , Julia M Sheffield  1
Affiliations

Belief Updating, Childhood Maltreatment, and Paranoia in Schizophrenia-Spectrum Disorders

Ali F Sloan et al. Schizophr Bull. .

Erratum in

Abstract

Background and hypothesis: Exposure to childhood maltreatment-a risk factor for psychosis that is associated with paranoia-may impact one's beliefs about the world and how beliefs are updated. We hypothesized that increased exposure to childhood maltreatment is related to volatility-related belief updating, specifically higher expectations of volatility, and that these relationships are strongest for threat-related maltreatment. Additionally, we tested whether belief updating mediates the relationship between maltreatment and paranoia.

Study design: Belief updating was measured in 75 patients with schizophrenia-spectrum disorders and 76 nonpsychiatric controls using a 3-option probabilistic reversal learning (3PRL) task. A Hierarchical Gaussian Filter (HGF) was used to estimate computational parameters of belief updating, including prior expectations of volatility (μ03). The Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ) was used to assess cumulative maltreatment, threat, and deprivation exposure. Paranoia was measured using the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) and the revised Green et al. Paranoid Thoughts Scale (R-GPTS).

Results: Greater exposure to childhood maltreatment is associated with higher prior expectations of volatility in the whole sample and in individuals with schizophrenia-spectrum disorders. This was specific to threat-related maltreatment, rather than deprivation, in schizophrenia-spectrum disorders. Paranoia was associated with both exposure to childhood maltreatment and volatility priors, but we did not observe a significant indirect effect of volatility priors on the relationship between maltreatment and paranoia.

Conclusions: Our study suggests that individuals with schizophrenia-spectrum disorders who were exposed to threatening experiences during childhood expect their environment to be more volatile, potentially facilitating aberrant belief updating and conferring risk for paranoia.

Keywords: computational modeling; decision-making; deprivation; threat; volatility.

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Figures

Fig. 1.
Fig. 1.
Greater cumulative exposure to childhood maltreatment was significantly associated with higher μ03 (A) across the entire sample (ρ = 0.21, P = .01) and (B) in individuals with schizophrenia-spectrum disorders (ρ = 0.29, P = .01).
Fig. 2.
Fig. 2.
In individuals with schizophrenia-spectrum disorders, greater exposure to threat-related maltreatment was associated with higher μ03 (ρ = 0.27, P = .02). This relationship was not significant in the healthy control group (ρ = 0.02, P = .85).
Fig. 3.
Fig. 3.
In individuals with schizophrenia-spectrum disorders, (A) exposure to threat-related maltreatment was associated with higher μ03 and (B) exposure to deprivation-related maltreatment was not associated with differences in μ03. **P < .01.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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