Aberrant Salience in Psychotic Disorders
Summary
Aberrant salience refers to the misassignment of importance or relevance to stimuli that would normally be regarded as neutral. It is widely regarded as a core mechanism underlying the emergence of positive psychotic symptoms, such as delusions and hallucinations. Dysregulated dopamine signalling within corticostriatal circuits is thought to amplify noise in motivational networks, leading to the perception of undue significance in environmental cues. This process not only contributes to the formation of idiosyncratic beliefs but also sustains the conviction with which these beliefs are held. Contemporary research has elucidated how both genetic predisposition and environmental factors—particularly early life stress—interact to modulate salience processing. Improved understanding of aberrant salience has practical implications for early detection of psychosis risk, refinement of cognitive-behavioural interventions and the development of novel pharmacological strategies aimed at restoring balanced striatal function.
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Aberrant Salience in Psychotic Disorders publication trend
The graph below shows the total number of articles in aberrant salience in psychotic disorders across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).
Technical terms
Aberrant salience: The attribution of undue significance to neutral stimuli, driven by dysregulated dopamine transmission.
Positive symptoms: Psychotic manifestations such as delusions and hallucinations, reflecting an excess or distortion of normal processes.
Ventral striatum: A key subcortical structure involved in reward evaluation and the encoding of motivational salience.
Salience Attribution Test (SAT): A behavioural paradigm that distinguishes between adaptive assignment of relevance to task-relevant cues and aberrant responses to irrelevant stimuli.
References
- Aberrant salience mediates the interplay between emotional abuse and positive symptoms in schizophrenia. Comprehensive Psychiatry (2024).
- Longitudinal alterations in motivational salience processing in ultra-high-risk subjects for psychosis. Psychological Medicine (2016).
- Aberrant salience correlates with psychotic dimensions in outpatients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders. Annals of General Psychiatry (2022).
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