The association between aberrant salience and psychotic experiences in general population twins, and genetic vulnerability as a modifier

Marjan Drukker*, Tatvan Todor, Jelle Bongaarts, Eleonora Broggi, Mihika Kelkar, Thomas Wigglesworth, Kayle Verhiel, Karel van Leeuwen, Meinte Koster, Catherine Derom, Evert Thiery, Marc De Hert, Claudia Menne-Lothmann, Jeroen Decoster, Dina Collip, Ruud van Winkel, Nele Jacobs, Sinan Guloksuz, Bart Rutten, Jim van Os

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

Background: Previous studies assessing the hypothesis that the construct of ‘aberrant salience’ is associated with psychosis and psychotic symptoms showed conflicting results. For this reason, the association between measures to index aberrant salience and subclinical psychotic symptoms in a general population sample was analysed. In addition, genetic vulnerability was added to the analysis as a modifier to test the hypothesis that modification by genetic vulnerability may explain variability in the results. Methods: The TwinssCan project obtained data from general population twins (N = 887). CAPE (Community Assessment of Psychic Experience) scores were used to index psychotic experiences. Aberrant salience was assessed with white noise task and ambiguous situations task. Results: Measures of aberrant salience were not associated with psychotic experiences, nor was there evidence for an interaction with genetic predisposition in this association (Z = 1.08, p = 0.282). Conclusions: Various studies including the present could not replicate the association between aberrant salience and psychotic experiences in general population samples. The conflicting findings might be explained by moderation by genetic vulnerability, but results are inconsistent. If there was evidence for a main effect or interaction, this was in the positive symptom scale only. On the other hand, the association was more robust in so-called ‘ultra-high risk’ patients and first episode psychosis patients. Thus, this association may represent a state-dependent association, present only at the more severe end of the psychosis spectrum.

Original languageEnglish
Article number736
Number of pages12
JournalBMC Psychiatry
Volume24
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Dec 2024

Keywords

  • Aberrant salience
  • Genetic vulnerability
  • Subclinical psychotic symptoms

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