Altered activation in association with reward-related trial-and-error learning in patients with schizophrenia.

In patients with schizophrenia, the ability to learn from reinforcement is known to be impaired. The present fMRI study aimed at investigating the neural correlates of reinforcement-related trial-and-error learning in 19 schizophrenia patients and 20 healthy volunteers. A modified gambling paradigm was applied where each cue indicated a subsequent number which had to be guessed.