Neural Mechanisms of Prospection in Individuals With Schizotypal Traits, Autistic Traits, or Depressive Symptoms

Prospection refers to the ability to mentally construct future events, which is closely related to motivation and anhedonia. The neural underpinning of impaired prospection in psychiatric populations remains unclear. We 34 individuals with autistic traits (AT), 27 individuals with schizotypal traits (ST), 31 individuals with depressive symptoms (DS), and 35 controls. Participants completed a prospection task while undergoing functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). We found that regions of the “default mode network” including the medial frontal gyrus, the posterior cingulate cortex, the precuneus and the parahippocampus were activated; and regions of the “task-positive network” including the inferior parietal lobe, the inferior frontal gyrus and the precentral gyrus were deactivated during prospection in controls. Compared with controls, AT, ST, and DS showed comparable behavioral performance on prospection. However, reduced activation in anterior cingulate cortex and frontal gyrus was found in AT individuals relative to controls during prospection. ST individuals showed hyperactivation in the caudate relative to controls when processing positive while DS individuals and controls showed similar neural responses during prospection.