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Competition for neuronal resources: how hallucinations make themselves heard

  • Daniela Hubl (a1), Thomas Koenig (a1), Werner K. Strik (a1), Lester Melie Garcia (a2) and Thomas Dierks (a3)...
Abstract
Background

Hallucinations are perceptions in the absence of a corresponding external sensory stimulus. However, during auditory verbal hallucinations, activation of the primary auditory cortex has been described.

Aims

The objective of this study was to investigate whether this activation of the auditory cortex contributes essentially to the character of hallucinations and attributes them to alien sources, or whether the auditory activation is a sign of increased general auditory attention to external sounds.

Method

The responsiveness of the auditory cortex was investigated by auditory evoked potentials (N100) during the simultaneous occurrence of hallucinations and external stimuli. Evoked potentials were computed separately for periods with and without hallucinations; N100 power, topography and brain electrical sources were analysed.

Results

Hallucinations lowered the N100 amplitudes and changed the topography, presumably due to a reduced left temporal responsivity.

Conclusions

This finding indicates competition between auditory stimuli and hallucinations for physiological resources in the primary auditory cortex. The abnormal activation of the primary auditory cortex may thus be a constituent of auditory hallucinations.

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Copyright
Corresponding author
Daniela Hubl, University Hospital of Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatric Neurophysiology, Bolligenstrasse 111, CH-3000 Bern 60, Switzerland. Tel: +4131 930 95 22; fax: +41 31 930 99 61; email: hubl@puk.unibe.ch
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Declaration of interest

None.

Funding detailed in Acknowledgements.

Footnotes
References
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Competition for neuronal resources: how hallucinations make themselves heard

  • Daniela Hubl (a1), Thomas Koenig (a1), Werner K. Strik (a1), Lester Melie Garcia (a2) and Thomas Dierks (a3)...
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