Learning Dysfunction in Psychosis and Addiction, A. Heinz, Athens Conference

Dr. Heinz's presentation was excellent. The meat was in his slides. In my rough notes I included where he had published his imaging research but it really was interesting to see the graphs and images of the brain that were involved in each of the areas of research.  Fascinating cutting edge work. Remarkable privilege to be able to hear this man in person.  Great speaker.

(Note that Dr. Heinz has published in the world's most renown and adjudicated scientific, neurological and psychiatric journals - he presents his ideas so humbly and simply it's easy to be  lulled into not realizing what genius went into the original thought that has brought him such well earned respect in the  field of neuroscience research.)

Learning Dysfunction in Psychosis and Addiction

1. Heinz - Germany

Prof of Psychiatry Berlin

Valence and Arousal - charting underlying substrated

Boundary between neurology and psychiatry

Dopamine discharge - schizophrenia and addiction

Noted in Pavlov dog studies

Schultz et al, 1997

Brain is mathematically computing reward stimuli

Reward anticipation and Central Dopamine Release

-Cue, delay, target ‘

Knutsen et al J, of Neuroscience 2001

Shultz Science 1996

Ventral striatal activation during reard anticipation and motor reaction time

-Heinz and Schlagenhauf Sz Bull

Shows on scans

Alcohol dependent, depressed, adhd, mania- alteration impaired

If you are impaired in expectation of reward may not be motivated

Schizophrenia - dopamine dysfunction

Alcohol detoxification - downregulating 

impairs learning

heinz et al, Am j. Psych

Impaired reward associated learning in alcohol dependence and schizophrenia

Park, Heinz J. Neuroscience 2010

Lack of feedback related Prefrontal Cortex modulation, in alcoholics and reduced learning speed

Reduced VS (Ventral Striatum) activation during informative error processing in schizophrenia

Outcome in monetary reward task

Wrase et al, Neuroimage 2007

Bold response in mPFC and ventral striatum in schizophrenia

- sz brain activated for failure

• sz brain reacts to the negative

Severity of delusion negatively correlated with mPFC activent when successfuly versus non successfully avoiding loss

• feeling they don’t have control in environment
• Heiz - Biological Psychiatry 2009

Summary 

-Psychiatric disorder as alterations of basic learning mechanisms that interact with individual and social/cultural experience

-computation approaches to gentotype-phenotype interactions