As part of a recent study conducted in China, researchers have made progress in understanding auditory hallucinations in individuals with schizophrenia. This was possible thanks to an examination which made it possible to measure and record the electrical activity of the brain: the electroencephalogram.
Understanding the origin of auditory hallucinations
Qualified as complex chronic psychiatric pathologyschizophrenia is sometimes talked about in the scientific press. In 2017, for example, a virtual reality experience in Belgium allowed people to immerse themselves in the daily life of a schizophrenic person. Mainly manifested by a significant loss of contact with reality which can take several forms, this psychotic disorder would affect nearly 0.72% of the population at some point in life.
A team from NYU Shanghai (China) published a study on the subject in the journal Plos Biology on October 3, 2024. The researchers explained that they had succeeded in understand the origin of auditory hallucinations of some people with schizophrenia. Let us remember that the individuals impacted hear voices from their own thoughts that they cannot distinguish outside sounds. In other words, they feel like an invisible person is communicating with them.
Here, Chinese scientists developed a map of the brain waves of these patients using electroencephalogram monitors. This allowed them to detect abnormal activity in their brain.
The hope of discovering a treatment
The study included around forty patients, including twenty who have already had auditory hallucinations and twenty who have never experienced them. According to scientists, dysfunctions at the level of corollary discharge signals are the cause of these hallucinations. This is what makes patients continue to perceive their thoughts this way. Furthermore, scientists have also identified a imprecise activation of efference copy which helps to strengthen the perception of sounds coming from thoughts. People with schizophrenia therefore have difficulty distinguishing reality from their imagination due to the presence of connection problems between their motor and auditory systems. Ultimately, these individuals are therefore incapable of differentiating their own thoughts from the outside world.
Those responsible for the work hope to use the study data to refine treatment searches against schizophrenia. This research could ultimately make it possible to improve current therapies or develop new techniques to accelerate the recovery of people with schizophrenia.
According to a 2022 publication from the World Health Organization (WHO), approximately 24 million people are schizophrenic in the world, or one in 300. The search for treatment and the improvement of existing therapies are therefore clearly a matter of public health.
Health
