Reward anticipation in schizophrenia: A coordinate-based meta-analysis

Abstract

Reward processing impairments have been linked with positive and negative symptoms of schizophrenia. Here, we performed a coordinate-based meta-analysis that combined eleven BOLD-fMRI studies comparing reward anticipation signals between schizophrenia patients and healthy controls. We observed a reduced difference in activation in schizophrenia patients within a frontal-striatal network. Meta-regressions revealed that this functional signature was linked to the severity of psychotic symptoms and persisted even after controlling for the dose of antipsychotic medications.

Keywords: Antipsychotics; Meta-analysis; Reward; Salience; Schizophrenia; fMRI.