From superstitious behavior to delusional thinking: The role of the hippocampus in misattributions of causality

Abstract

Nearly half a century ago B. F. Skinner proposed the hypothesis that human superstitiousness would be equivalent to the ‘superstitious’ behavior displayed by animals in operant situations involving response-independent reinforcement. Surprisingly, no attempt has ever been made to test this equivalence hypothesis experimentally. In the light of recent evidence for a common neurological basis of both superstitious beliefs held by normal subjects and delusional ideas of psychotic patients, Skinner's hypothesis has become topical again. We present an extension of the hypothesis which assumes dysfunction of the medial temporal lobe, in particular of the hippocampus, to be responsible for conditioned superstitions in animals, for common everyday superstitions, and for schizophrenic delusions. This hypothesis is based on (1) the observation of an enhanced ‘superstitious’ reactivity in hippocampectomized animals, (2) findings of an increased occurrence of popular superstitions in patients with a temporal-limbic epileptic focus, and (3) morphological and pharmacological evidence for schizophrenic delusions to be causally related to hippocampal damage.