Impaired social learning in patients with major depressive disorder revealed by a reinforcement learning model

Yuening Jin; Qinglin Gao; Yun Wang; Martin Dietz; Le Xiao; Yuyang Cai; Vibeke Bliksted; Yuan Zhou

doi:10.1016/j.ijchp.2023.100389

Impaired social learning in patients with major depressive disorder revealed by a reinforcement learning model

Int J Clin Health Psychol. 2023 Oct-Dec;23(4):100389. doi: 10.1016/j.ijchp.2023.100389. Epub 2023 May 11.

Authors

Yuening Jin^{1

2}, Qinglin Gao^{1

2}, Yun Wang³, Martin Dietz⁴, Le Xiao³, Yuyang Cai^{1

2}, Vibeke Bliksted^{5

6}, Yuan Zhou^{1

2

3}

Affiliations

¹ CAS Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China.
² Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
³ The National Clinical Research Center for Mental Disorders & Beijing Key Laboratory of Mental Disorders, Beijing Anding Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China.
⁴ Center of Functionally Integrative Neuroscience, Institute of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University, Universitetsbyen 3, Aarhus C 8000, Denmark.
⁵ Department of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University, Palle Juul-Jensens Boulevard 82, Aarhus N 8200, Denmark.
⁶ Centre for Interacting Minds, Aarhus University, Jens Chr. Skous Vej 4, Building 1483, Aarhus C 8000, Denmark.

Abstract

Background/objective: Patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) have altered learning rates for rewards and losses in non-social learning paradigms. However, it is not well understood whether the ability to learn from social interactions is altered in MDD patients. Using reinforcement learning during the repeated Trust Game (rTG), we investigated how MDD patients learn to trust newly-met partners in MDD patients.

Method: Sixty-eight MDD patients and fifty-four controls each played as 'investor' and interacted with ten different partners. We manipulated both the level of trustworthiness by varying the chance of reciprocity (10, 30, 50, 70 and 90%) and reputation disclosure, where partners' reputation was either pre-disclosed or hidden.

Results: Our reinforcement learning model revealed that MDD patients had significantly higher learning rates for losses than the controls in both the reputation disclosure and non-disclosure condition. The difference was larger when reputation was not disclosed than disclosed. We observed no difference in learning rates for gains in either condition.

Conclusions: Our findings highlight that abnormal learning for losses underlies the social learning process in MDD patients. This abnormality is higher when situational unpredictability is high versus low. Our findings provide novel insights into social rehabilitation of MDD.

Keywords: Major depressive disorders; Reinforcement learning model; Reward Learning; Social learning; Trust game.