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Albert L, Potheegadoo J, Herbelin B, Bernasconi F, Blanke O. Numerosity estimation of virtual humans as a digital-robotic marker for hallucinations in Parkinson's disease. Nat Commun 2024; 15:1905. [PMID: 38472203 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-45912-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/01/2023] [Accepted: 02/07/2024] [Indexed: 03/14/2024] Open
Abstract
Hallucinations are frequent non-motor symptoms in Parkinson's disease (PD) associated with dementia and higher mortality. Despite their high clinical relevance, current assessments of hallucinations are based on verbal self-reports and interviews that are limited by important biases. Here, we used virtual reality (VR), robotics, and digital online technology to quantify presence hallucination (vivid sensations that another person is nearby when no one is actually present and can neither be seen nor heard) in laboratory and home-based settings. We establish that elevated numerosity estimation of virtual human agents in VR is a digital marker for experimentally induced presence hallucinations in healthy participants, as confirmed across several control conditions and analyses. We translated the digital marker (numerosity estimation) to an online procedure that 170 PD patients carried out remotely at their homes, revealing that PD patients with disease-related presence hallucinations (but not control PD patients) showed higher numerosity estimation. Numerosity estimation enables quantitative monitoring of hallucinations, is an easy-to-use unobtrusive online method, reaching people far away from medical centers, translating neuroscientific findings using robotics and VR, to patients' homes without specific equipment or trained staff.
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Affiliation(s)
- Louis Albert
- Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience, Neuro-X Institute, Faculty of Life Sciences, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL), Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Jevita Potheegadoo
- Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience, Neuro-X Institute, Faculty of Life Sciences, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL), Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Bruno Herbelin
- Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience, Neuro-X Institute, Faculty of Life Sciences, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL), Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Fosco Bernasconi
- Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience, Neuro-X Institute, Faculty of Life Sciences, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL), Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Olaf Blanke
- Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience, Neuro-X Institute, Faculty of Life Sciences, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL), Geneva, Switzerland.
- Department of Clinical Neurosciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland.
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Orepic P, Bernasconi F, Faggella M, Faivre N, Blanke O. Robotically-induced auditory-verbal hallucinations: combining self-monitoring and strong perceptual priors. Psychol Med 2024; 54:569-581. [PMID: 37779256 DOI: 10.1017/s0033291723002222] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/03/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Inducing hallucinations under controlled experimental conditions in non-hallucinating individuals represents a novel research avenue oriented toward understanding complex hallucinatory phenomena, avoiding confounds observed in patients. Auditory-verbal hallucinations (AVH) are one of the most common and distressing psychotic symptoms, whose etiology remains largely unknown. Two prominent accounts portray AVH either as a deficit in auditory-verbal self-monitoring, or as a result of overly strong perceptual priors. METHODS In order to test both theoretical models and evaluate their potential integration, we developed a robotic procedure able to induce self-monitoring perturbations (consisting of sensorimotor conflicts between poking movements and corresponding tactile feedback) and a perceptual prior associated with otherness sensations (i.e. feeling the presence of a non-existing another person). RESULTS Here, in two independent studies, we show that this robotic procedure led to AVH-like phenomena in healthy individuals, quantified as an increase in false alarm rate in a voice detection task. Robotically-induced AVH-like sensations were further associated with delusional ideation and to both AVH accounts. Specifically, a condition with stronger sensorimotor conflicts induced more AVH-like sensations (self-monitoring), while, in the otherness-related experimental condition, there were more AVH-like sensations when participants were detecting other-voice stimuli, compared to detecting self-voice stimuli (strong-priors). CONCLUSIONS By demonstrating an experimental procedure able to induce AVH-like sensations in non-hallucinating individuals, we shed new light on AVH phenomenology, thereby integrating self-monitoring and strong-priors accounts.
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Affiliation(s)
- Pavo Orepic
- Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience, Neuro-X Institute & Brain Mind Institute, School of Life Sciences, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Fosco Bernasconi
- Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience, Neuro-X Institute & Brain Mind Institute, School of Life Sciences, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Melissa Faggella
- Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience, Neuro-X Institute & Brain Mind Institute, School of Life Sciences, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Nathan Faivre
- University Grenoble Alpes, University Savoie Mont Blanc, CNRS, LPNC, 38000 Grenoble, France
| | - Olaf Blanke
- Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience, Neuro-X Institute & Brain Mind Institute, School of Life Sciences, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Geneva, Switzerland
- Department of Clinical Neurosciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
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3
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Orepic P, Iannotti GR, Haemmerli J, Goga C, Park HD, Betka S, Blanke O, Michel CM, Bondolfi G, Schaller K. Experimentally-evidenced personality alterations following meningioma resection: A case report. Cortex 2023; 168:157-166. [PMID: 37716111 DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2023.08.006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/01/2023] [Revised: 06/29/2023] [Accepted: 08/03/2023] [Indexed: 09/18/2023]
Abstract
Personality changes following neurosurgical procedures remain poorly understood and pose a major concern for patients, rendering a strong need for predictive biomarkers. Here we report a case of a female patient in her 40s who underwent resection of a large sagittal sinus meningioma with bilateral extension, including resection and ligation of the superior sagittal sinus, that resulted in borderline personality disorder. Importantly, we captured clinically-observed personality changes in a series of experiments assessing self-other voice discrimination, one of the experimental markers for self-consciousness. In all experiments, the patient consistently confused self- and other voices - i.e., she misattributed other-voice stimuli to herself and self-voice stimuli to others. Moreover, the electroencephalogram (EEG) microstate, that was in healthy participants observed when hearing their own voice, in this patient occurred for other-voice stimuli. We hypothesize that the patient's personality alterations resulted from a gradual development of a venous collateral hemodynamic network that impacted venous drainage of brain areas associated with self-consciousness. In addition, resection and ligation of the superior sagittal sinus significantly aggravated personality alterations through postoperative decompensation of a direct frontal lobe compression. Experimentally mirroring clinical observations, these findings are of high relevance for developing biomarkers of post-surgical personality alterations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Pavo Orepic
- Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience, NeuroX Institute and Brain Mind Institute, Faculty of Life Sciences, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Giannina Rita Iannotti
- Functional Brain Mapping Lab, Department of Fundamental Neurosciences, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland; Department of Neurosurgery, Geneva University Medical Center & Faculty of Medicine, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Julien Haemmerli
- Department of Neurosurgery, Geneva University Medical Center & Faculty of Medicine, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Cristina Goga
- Department of Neurosurgery, Geneva University Medical Center & Faculty of Medicine, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Hyeong-Dong Park
- Graduate Institute of Mind, Brain and Consciousness, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan; Brain and Consciousness Research Centre, Shuang-Ho Hospital, New Taipei City, Taiwan
| | - Sophie Betka
- Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience, NeuroX Institute and Brain Mind Institute, Faculty of Life Sciences, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Olaf Blanke
- Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience, NeuroX Institute and Brain Mind Institute, Faculty of Life Sciences, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Geneva, Switzerland; Faculty of Medicine, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Christoph M Michel
- Functional Brain Mapping Lab, Department of Fundamental Neurosciences, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland; Center for Biomedical Imaging (CIBM), Lausanne and Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Guido Bondolfi
- Department of Psychiatry, Geneva University Medical Center & Faculty of Medicine, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Karl Schaller
- Department of Neurosurgery, Geneva University Medical Center & Faculty of Medicine, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland.
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4
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Alderson-Day B, Moseley P, Mitrenga K, Moffatt J, Lee R, Foxwell J, Hayes J, Smailes D, Fernyhough C. Varieties of felt presence? Three surveys of presence phenomena and their relations to psychopathology. Psychol Med 2023; 53:3692-3700. [PMID: 35227337 PMCID: PMC10277754 DOI: 10.1017/s0033291722000344] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/01/2021] [Revised: 01/25/2022] [Accepted: 01/28/2022] [Indexed: 11/07/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Experiences of felt presence (FP) are well documented in neurology, neuropsychology and bereavement research, but systematic research in relation to psychopathology is limited. FP is a feature of sensorimotor disruption in psychosis, hypnagogic experiences, solo pursuits and spiritual encounters, but research comparing these phenomena remains rare. A comparative approach to the phenomenology of FP has the potential to identify shared and unique processes underlying the experience across these contexts, with implications for clinical understanding and intervention. METHODS We present a mixed-methods analysis from three online surveys comparing FP across three diverse contexts: a population sample which included people with experience of psychosis and voice-hearing (study 1, N = 75), people with spiritual and spiritualist beliefs (study 2, N = 47) and practitioners of endurance/solo pursuits (study 3, N = 84). Participants were asked to provide descriptions of their FP experiences and completed questionnaires on FP frequency, hallucinatory experiences, dissociation, paranoia, social inner speech and sleep. Data and code for the study are available via OSF. RESULTS Hierarchical linear regression analysis indicated that FP frequency was predicted by a general tendency to experience hallucinations in all three studies, although paranoia and gender (female > male) were also significant predictors in sample 1. Qualitative analysis highlighted shared and diverging phenomenology of FP experiences across the three studies, including a role for immersive states in FP. CONCLUSIONS These data combine to provide the first picture of the potential shared mechanisms underlying different accounts of FP, supporting a unitary model of the experience.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Peter Moseley
- Department of Psychology, Northumbria University, Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK
| | - Kaja Mitrenga
- Department of Psychology, Durham University, Durham, UK
| | - Jamie Moffatt
- Department of Psychology, University of Sussex, Falmer, UK
| | - Rebecca Lee
- Department of Psychology, Durham University, Durham, UK
- Hull York Medical School, University of Hull, Hull, UK
| | - John Foxwell
- Department of Psychology, Durham University, Durham, UK
| | | | - David Smailes
- Department of Psychology, Northumbria University, Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK
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5
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Orepic P, Kannape OA, Faivre N, Blanke O. Bone conduction facilitates self-other voice discrimination. ROYAL SOCIETY OPEN SCIENCE 2023; 10:221561. [PMID: 36816848 PMCID: PMC9929504 DOI: 10.1098/rsos.221561] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/04/2022] [Accepted: 01/27/2023] [Indexed: 06/18/2023]
Abstract
One's own voice is one of the most important and most frequently heard voices. Although it is the sound we associate most with ourselves, it is perceived as strange when played back in a recording. One of the main reasons is the lack of bone conduction that is inevitably present when hearing one's own voice while speaking. The resulting discrepancy between experimental and natural self-voice stimuli has significantly impeded self-voice research, rendering it one of the least investigated aspects of self-consciousness. Accordingly, factors that contribute to self-voice perception remain largely unknown. In a series of three studies, we rectified this ecological discrepancy by augmenting experimental self-voice stimuli with bone-conducted vibrotactile stimulation that is present during natural self-voice perception. Combining voice morphing with psychophysics, we demonstrate that specifically self-other but not familiar-other voice discrimination improved for stimuli presented using bone as compared with air conduction. Furthermore, our data outline independent contributions of familiarity and acoustic processing to separating the own from another's voice: although vocal differences increased general voice discrimination, self-voices were more confused with familiar than unfamiliar voices, regardless of their acoustic similarity. Collectively, our findings show that concomitant vibrotactile stimulation improves auditory self-identification, thereby portraying self-voice as a fundamentally multi-modal construct.
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Affiliation(s)
- Pavo Orepic
- Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience, Neuro-X Institute and Brain Mind Institute, Faculty of Life Sciences, École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), 1202 Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Oliver Alan Kannape
- Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience, Neuro-X Institute and Brain Mind Institute, Faculty of Life Sciences, École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), 1202 Geneva, Switzerland
- Virtual Medicine Centre, NeuroCentre, University Hospital of Geneva, 1205 Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Nathan Faivre
- University Grenoble Alpes, University Savoie Mont Blanc, CNRS, LPNC, 38000 Grenoble, France
| | - Olaf Blanke
- Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience, Neuro-X Institute and Brain Mind Institute, Faculty of Life Sciences, École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), 1202 Geneva, Switzerland
- Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University Hospital of Geneva, 1205 Geneva, Switzerland
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6
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Bernasconi F, Blondiaux E, Rognini G, Dhanis H, Jenni L, Potheegadoo J, Hara M, Blanke O. Neuroscience robotics for controlled induction and real-time assessment of hallucinations. Nat Protoc 2022; 17:2966-2989. [PMID: 36097181 DOI: 10.1038/s41596-022-00737-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/29/2021] [Accepted: 06/16/2022] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
Abstract
Although hallucinations are important and frequent symptoms in major psychiatric and neurological diseases, little is known about their brain mechanisms. Hallucinations are unpredictable and private experiences, making their investigation, quantification and assessment highly challenging. A major shortcoming in hallucination research is the absence of methods able to induce specific and short-lasting hallucinations, which resemble clinical hallucinations, can be elicited repeatedly and vary across experimental conditions. By integrating clinical observations and recent advances in cognitive neuroscience with robotics, we have designed a novel device and sensorimotor method able to repeatedly induce a specific, clinically relevant hallucination: presence hallucination. Presence hallucinations are induced by applying specific conflicting (spatiotemporal) sensorimotor stimulation including an upper extremity and the torso of the participant. Another, MRI-compatible, robotic device using similar sensorimotor stimulation permitted the identification of the brain mechanisms of these hallucinations. Enabling the identification of behavioral and a frontotemporal neural biomarkers of hallucinations, under fully controlled experimental conditions and in real-time, this method can be applied in healthy participants as well as patients with schizophrenia, neurodegenerative disease or other hallucinations. The execution of these protocols requires intermediate-level skills in cognitive neuroscience and MRI processing, as well as minimal coding experience to control the robotic device. These protocols take ~3 h to be completed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Fosco Bernasconi
- Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience, Center for Neuroprosthetics & Brain Mind Institute, Faculty of Life Sciences, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL), Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Eva Blondiaux
- Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience, Center for Neuroprosthetics & Brain Mind Institute, Faculty of Life Sciences, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL), Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Giulio Rognini
- Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience, Center for Neuroprosthetics & Brain Mind Institute, Faculty of Life Sciences, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL), Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Herberto Dhanis
- Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience, Center for Neuroprosthetics & Brain Mind Institute, Faculty of Life Sciences, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL), Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Laurent Jenni
- Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience, Center for Neuroprosthetics & Brain Mind Institute, Faculty of Life Sciences, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL), Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Jevita Potheegadoo
- Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience, Center for Neuroprosthetics & Brain Mind Institute, Faculty of Life Sciences, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL), Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Masayuki Hara
- Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Saitama University, Saitama, Japan
| | - Olaf Blanke
- Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience, Center for Neuroprosthetics & Brain Mind Institute, Faculty of Life Sciences, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL), Geneva, Switzerland. .,Department of Clinical Neurosciences, Geneva University Hospital, Geneva, Switzerland.
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7
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Vehar N, Potheegadoo J, Blanke O. Linking Agent Detection of Invisible Presences to the Self: Relevance for Religious and Spiritual Experiences. Front Behav Neurosci 2022; 16:952736. [PMID: 35836488 PMCID: PMC9274283 DOI: 10.3389/fnbeh.2022.952736] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/25/2022] [Accepted: 06/07/2022] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Neza Vehar
- Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience, Center for Neuroprosthetics and Brain Mind Institute, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Jevita Potheegadoo
- Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience, Center for Neuroprosthetics and Brain Mind Institute, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Olaf Blanke
- Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience, Center for Neuroprosthetics and Brain Mind Institute, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Geneva, Switzerland
- Department of Clinical Neurosciences, Geneva University Hospital, Geneva, Switzerland
- *Correspondence: Olaf Blanke
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8
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Orepic P, Park HD, Rognini G, Faivre N, Blanke O. Breathing affects self-other voice discrimination in a bodily state associated with somatic passivity. Psychophysiology 2022; 59:e14016. [PMID: 35150452 PMCID: PMC9286416 DOI: 10.1111/psyp.14016] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/22/2021] [Revised: 07/08/2021] [Accepted: 12/24/2021] [Indexed: 01/03/2023]
Abstract
A growing number of studies have focused on identifying cognitive processes that are modulated by interoceptive signals, particularly in relation to the respiratory or cardiac cycle. Considering the fundamental role of interoception in bodily self‐consciousness, we here investigated whether interoceptive signals also impact self‐voice perception. We applied an interactive, robotic paradigm associated with somatic passivity (a bodily state characterized by illusory misattribution of self‐generated touches to someone else) to investigate whether somatic passivity impacts self‐voice perception as a function of concurrent interoceptive signals. Participants' breathing and heartbeat signals were recorded while they performed two self‐voice tasks (self‐other voice discrimination and loudness perception) and while simultaneously experiencing two robotic conditions (somatic passivity condition; control condition). Our data reveal that respiration, but not cardiac activity, affects self‐voice perception: participants were better at discriminating self‐voice from another person’s voice during the inspiration phase of the respiration cycle. Moreover, breathing effects were prominent in participants experiencing somatic passivity and a different task with the same stimuli (i.e., judging the loudness and not identity of the voices) was unaffected by breathing. Combining interoception and voice perception with self‐monitoring framework, these data extend findings on breathing‐dependent changes in perception and cognition to self‐related processing. Impact StatementThe contents of this page will be shown on the eTOC on the online version only. It will not be published as part of the article PDF. We combined psychophysics with robotics and voice‐morphing technology to evaluate the effect of breathing on self‐voice perception. Our results show that listeners better perceive their own voice during inspiration, an effect that is modulated by self‐related bodily processing. This extends previous findings documenting the effect of interoceptive signals on perception and suggests that the bodily self may serve as a scaffold for cognition.
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Affiliation(s)
- Pavo Orepic
- Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience, Center for Neuroprosthetics and Brain Mind Institute, Faculty of Life Sciences, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Hyeong-Dong Park
- Graduate Institute of Mind, Brain and Consciousness, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan.,Brain and Consciousness Research Centre, Shuang-Ho Hospital, New Taipei City, Taiwan
| | - Giulio Rognini
- Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience, Center for Neuroprosthetics and Brain Mind Institute, Faculty of Life Sciences, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Nathan Faivre
- Univ. Grenoble Alpes, Univ. Savoie Mont Blanc, CNRS, LPNC, Grenoble, France
| | - Olaf Blanke
- Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience, Center for Neuroprosthetics and Brain Mind Institute, Faculty of Life Sciences, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland.,Faculty of Medicine, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
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Salomon R, Kannape OA, Debarba HG, Kaliuzhna M, Schneider M, Faivre N, Eliez S, Blanke O. Agency Deficits in a Human Genetic Model of Schizophrenia: Insights From 22q11DS Patients. Schizophr Bull 2021; 48:495-504. [PMID: 34935960 PMCID: PMC8886583 DOI: 10.1093/schbul/sbab143] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/23/2022]
Abstract
Schizophrenia is a chronic and disabling mental illness characterized by a disordered sense of self. Current theories suggest that deficiencies in the sense of control over one's actions (Sense of Agency, SoA) may underlie some of the symptoms of schizophrenia. However, it is not clear if agency deficits are a precursor or a result of psychosis. Here, we investigated full body agency using virtual reality in a cohort of 22q11 deletion syndrome participants with a genetic propensity for schizophrenia. In two experiments employing virtual reality, full body motion tracking, and online feedback, we investigated SoA in two separate domains. Our results show that participants with 22q11DS had a considerable deficit in monitoring their actions, compared to age-matched controls in both the temporal and spatial domain. This was coupled with a bias toward erroneous attribution of actions to the self. These results indicate that nonpsychotic 22q11DS participants have a domain general deficit in the conscious sensorimotor mechanisms underlying the bodily self. Our data reveal an abnormality in the SoA in a cohort with a genetic predisposition for schizophrenia, but without psychosis, providing evidence that deficits in delineation of the self may be a precursor rather than a result of the psychotic state.
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Affiliation(s)
- Roy Salomon
- Gonda Multidisciplinary Brain Research Center, Bar Ilan University (BIU), Ramat-Gan, Israel,Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience, Brain Mind Institute, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Oliver Alan Kannape
- Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience, Brain Mind Institute, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Henrique Galvan Debarba
- Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience, Brain Mind Institute, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland,Department of Digital Design, IT University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark,Immersive Interaction Group, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Mariia Kaliuzhna
- Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience, Brain Mind Institute, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland,Clinical and Experimental Psychopathology Group, Department of Psychiatry, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Maude Schneider
- Developmental Imaging and Psychopathology Laboratory, Department of Psychiatry, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland,Clinical Psychology Unit for Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Nathan Faivre
- Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience, Brain Mind Institute, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland,Univ. Grenoble Alpes, Univ. Savoie Mont Blanc, CNRS, LPNC, Grenoble, France
| | - Stephan Eliez
- Developmental Imaging and Psychopathology Laboratory, Department of Psychiatry, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Olaf Blanke
- Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience, Brain Mind Institute, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland,Department of Clinical Neurosciences, Faculty of Medicine, University Hospital, Geneva, Switzerland,To whom correspondence should be addressed; Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience, Center for Neuroprosthetics, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Campus Biotech, Chemin des Mines 9, CH-1202 Geneva, Switzerland; tel: +41 21 693 96 21, e-mail:
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10
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Roel Lesur M, Bolt E, Saetta G, Lenggenhager B. The monologue of the double: Allocentric reduplication of the own voice alters bodily self-perception. Conscious Cogn 2021; 95:103223. [PMID: 34653785 DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2021.103223] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/23/2020] [Revised: 08/25/2021] [Accepted: 10/07/2021] [Indexed: 10/20/2022]
Abstract
During autoscopic phenomena, people perceive a double of themselves in extrapersonal space. Such clinical allocentric self-experiences sometimes co-occur with auditory hallucinations, yet experimental setups to induce similar illusions in healthy participants have generally neglected acoustic cues. We investigated whether feeling the presence of an auditory double could be provoked experimentally by recording healthy participants' own versus another person's voice and movements using binaural headphones from an egocentric (the participants' own) and an allocentric (a dummy head located elsewhere) perspective. When hearing themselves allocentrically, participants reported feeling a self-identified presence extracorporeally, an arguably distinct quality of autoscopy. Our results suggest that participants without hallucinatory experiences localized their own voice closer to themselves compared to that of another person. Explorative findings suggest that distinct patterns for hallucinators should be further investigated. This study suggests a successful induction of the feeling of an acoustic doppelganger, bridging clinical phenomena and experimental work.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marte Roel Lesur
- Department of Psychology, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
| | - Elena Bolt
- Department of Psychology, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Gianluca Saetta
- Department of Psychology, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
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11
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Iannotti GR, Orepic P, Brunet D, Koenig T, Alcoba-Banqueri S, Garin DFA, Schaller K, Blanke O, Michel CM. EEG Spatiotemporal Patterns Underlying Self-other Voice Discrimination. Cereb Cortex 2021; 32:1978-1992. [PMID: 34649280 PMCID: PMC9070353 DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhab329] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/01/2021] [Revised: 08/02/2021] [Accepted: 08/03/2021] [Indexed: 11/24/2022] Open
Abstract
There is growing evidence showing that the representation of the human “self” recruits special systems across different functions and modalities. Compared to self-face and self-body representations, few studies have investigated neural underpinnings specific to self-voice. Moreover, self-voice stimuli in those studies were consistently presented through air and lacking bone conduction, rendering the sound of self-voice stimuli different to the self-voice heard during natural speech. Here, we combined psychophysics, voice-morphing technology, and high-density EEG in order to identify the spatiotemporal patterns underlying self-other voice discrimination (SOVD) in a population of 26 healthy participants, both with air- and bone-conducted stimuli. We identified a self-voice-specific EEG topographic map occurring around 345 ms post-stimulus and activating a network involving insula, cingulate cortex, and medial temporal lobe structures. Occurrence of this map was modulated both with SOVD task performance and bone conduction. Specifically, the better participants performed at SOVD task, the less frequently they activated this network. In addition, the same network was recruited less frequently with bone conduction, which, accordingly, increased the SOVD task performance. This work could have an important clinical impact. Indeed, it reveals neural correlates of SOVD impairments, believed to account for auditory-verbal hallucinations, a common and highly distressing psychiatric symptom.
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Affiliation(s)
- Giannina Rita Iannotti
- Functional Brain Mapping Lab, Department of Fundamental Neurosciences, University of Geneva, 1202, Switzerland.,Department of Neurosurgery, University Hospitals of Geneva and Faculty of Medicine, University of Geneva, 1205, Switzerland
| | - Pavo Orepic
- Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience, Center for Neuroprosthetics and Brain Mind Institute, Faculty of Life Sciences, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL), 1202, Switzerland
| | - Denis Brunet
- Functional Brain Mapping Lab, Department of Fundamental Neurosciences, University of Geneva, 1202, Switzerland.,CIBM Center for Biomedical Imaging, Lausanne and Geneva, 1015, Switzerland
| | - Thomas Koenig
- Translational Research Center, University Hospital of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of Bern, Bern 3000, Switzerland
| | - Sixto Alcoba-Banqueri
- Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience, Center for Neuroprosthetics and Brain Mind Institute, Faculty of Life Sciences, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL), 1202, Switzerland
| | - Dorian F A Garin
- Department of Neurosurgery, University Hospitals of Geneva and Faculty of Medicine, University of Geneva, 1205, Switzerland
| | - Karl Schaller
- Department of Neurosurgery, University Hospitals of Geneva and Faculty of Medicine, University of Geneva, 1205, Switzerland
| | - Olaf Blanke
- Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience, Center for Neuroprosthetics and Brain Mind Institute, Faculty of Life Sciences, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL), 1202, Switzerland
| | - Christoph M Michel
- Functional Brain Mapping Lab, Department of Fundamental Neurosciences, University of Geneva, 1202, Switzerland.,CIBM Center for Biomedical Imaging, Lausanne and Geneva, 1015, Switzerland
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