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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: [email protected] (E.T.C. Ngan).
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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

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