After carrying out electroencephalograms on two groups of 20 schizophrenic patients – one group presenting auditory hallucinations and the other not – researchers at New York University Shanghai (China) suggest that these hallucinations result from abnormalities in two distinct brain processes.
The brain is disturbed
The first process involved would be a failure of the “corollary discharge”. The corollary discharge is like a message that the brain sends to itself to say “I’m the one doing this.” For example, when you move your arm, your brain knows that it is you who is doing it thanks to this message. Without this message, you might think someone else is moving your arm. Well for the voice, it’s the same thing. And if this system is deficient, the schizophrenic person may think that they are not the origin of the voice they hear.
Second altered process: the brain would hear sounds – the little voice that we all have in our heads – more intensely than it should.
This is why, according to the authors, people suffering from auditory hallucinations can “hear” sounds without external stimuli. “Targeting the alteration of these two processes in the future could lead to new treatments,” they conclude.
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