Auditory Hallucinations as Self-Talk

Imaging studies of the pathophysiology of hallucinations have been limited by a small number of scans per patient, noisy scanning equipment, and the difficulty of determining whether the patient experienced hallucinations during scanning. In this British study, in which 6 male chronic schizophrenic patients with frequent auditory hallucinations underwent functional MRI, investigators overcame these limitations by using 2 methods: frequent random silent scans and a button-pressing method to signal the presence of a hallucination.

After controlling for activation of the left motor cortex and right cerebellum and putamen attributable to button pushing, investigators found that auditory hallucinations were associated significantly with bilateral…