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Study Links Hallucinations to Misinterpreted Inner Speech

10/24/2025

Summary

Story summary

A University of New South Wales (UNSW) study with 142 participants, including people with schizophrenia and healthy controls, links auditory verbal hallucinations (AVH) to misinterpreting inner speech as external sounds due to disrupted predictive mechanisms.
Using electroencephalography (EEG), researchers showed healthy participants had reduced activity when imagined speech matched external sounds, while AVH participants showed increased activity.
The results could help identify biological markers for schizophrenia, aiding diagnosis and treatment.

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Story summary

A University of New South Wales (UNSW) study with 142 participants, including people with schizophrenia and healthy controls, links auditory verbal hallucinations (AVH) to misinterpreting inner speech as external sounds due to disrupted predictive mechanisms.
Using electroencephalography (EEG), researchers showed healthy participants had reduced activity when imagined speech matched external sounds, while AVH participants showed increased activity.
The results could help identify biological markers for schizophrenia, aiding diagnosis and treatment.