The brain patterns of 'hearing voices' revealed
15 August 2003
Researchers at the Mental Health Institute of Victoria have observed a pattern of brain activity in people with schizophrenia who are hearing voices that is similar to the pattern of brain activity observed in people without schizophrenia who are listening to someone speak.
The finding indicates that the process of ‘hearing voices’, as occurs when someone with schizophrenia has auditory hallucinations, overlaps with the process that occurs in any hearing person’s brain when they hear the voice of another person speaking.
The researchers suggest that their finding supports the idea that auditory hallucinations are mis-remembered episodic memories of speech.
The brain activity in the study was observed using positron emission tomography (PET), a computer imaging technique that is suited to experimental investigation of brain activity.
Last Reviewed: 15 August 2003
- 1. Copolov DL, Seal ML, Maruff P, Ulusoy R, Wong MT, Tochon-Danguy HJ, Egan GF. Cortical activation associated with the experience of auditory hallucinations and perception of human speech in schizophrenia: a PET correlation study. Psychiatry Res 2003 Apr 1; 122(3): 139-52
