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Benrimoh D, Fisher VL, Seabury R, Sibarium E, Mourgues C, Chen D, Powers A. Evidence for Reduced Sensory Precision and Increased Reliance on Priors in Hallucination-Prone Individuals in a General Population Sample. Schizophr Bull 2024; 50:349-362. [PMID: 37830405 PMCID: PMC10919780 DOI: 10.1093/schbul/sbad136] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/14/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND There is increasing evidence that people with hallucinations overweight perceptual beliefs relative to incoming sensory evidence. Past work demonstrating prior overweighting has used simple, nonlinguistic stimuli. However, auditory hallucinations in psychosis are often complex and linguistic. There may be an interaction between the type of auditory information being processed and its perceived quality in engendering hallucinations. STUDY DESIGN We administered a linguistic version of the conditioned hallucinations (CH) task to an online sample of 88 general population participants. Metrics related to hallucination-proneness, hallucination severity, stimulus thresholds, and stimulus detection rates were collected. Data were used to fit parameters of a Hierarchical Gaussian Filter (HGF) model of perceptual inference to determine how latent perceptual states influenced task behavior. STUDY RESULTS Replicating past results, higher CH rates were observed both in those with recent hallucinatory experiences as well as participants with high hallucination-proneness; CH rates were positively correlated with increased prior weighting; and increased prior weighting was related to hallucination severity. Unlike past results, participants with recent hallucinatory experiences as well as those with higher hallucination-proneness had higher stimulus thresholds, lower sensitivity to stimuli presented at the highest threshold, and had lower response confidence, consistent with lower precision of sensory evidence. CONCLUSIONS We replicate the finding that increased CH rates and recent hallucinations correlate with increased prior weighting using a linguistic version of the CH task. Results support a role for reduced sensory precision in the interplay between prior weighting and hallucination-proneness.
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Affiliation(s)
- David Benrimoh
- Department of Psychiatry, McGill University School of Medicine, Montreal, Canada
| | - Victoria L Fisher
- Yale University School of Medicine and the Connecticut Mental Health Center, New Haven, CT, USA
| | - Rashina Seabury
- Yale University School of Medicine and the Connecticut Mental Health Center, New Haven, CT, USA
| | - Ely Sibarium
- Yale University School of Medicine and the Connecticut Mental Health Center, New Haven, CT, USA
| | - Catalina Mourgues
- Yale University School of Medicine and the Connecticut Mental Health Center, New Haven, CT, USA
| | - Doris Chen
- Yale University School of Medicine and the Connecticut Mental Health Center, New Haven, CT, USA
| | - Albert Powers
- Yale University School of Medicine and the Connecticut Mental Health Center, New Haven, CT, USA
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Leptourgos P, Bansal S, Dutterer J, Culbreth A, Powers A, Suthaharan P, Kenney J, Erickson M, Waltz J, Wijtenburg SA, Gaston F, Rowland LM, Gold J, Corlett P. Relating Glutamate, Conditioned, and Clinical Hallucinations via 1H-MR Spectroscopy. Schizophr Bull 2022; 48:912-920. [PMID: 35199836 PMCID: PMC9212089 DOI: 10.1093/schbul/sbac006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/14/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND AND HYPOTHESIS Hallucinations may be driven by an excessive influence of prior expectations on current experience. Initial work has supported that contention and implicated the anterior insula in the weighting of prior beliefs. STUDY DESIGN Here we induce hallucinated tones by associating tones with the presentation of a visual cue. We find that people with schizophrenia who hear voices are more prone to the effect and using computational modeling we show they overweight their prior beliefs. In the same participants, we also measured glutamate levels in anterior insula, anterior cingulate, dorsolateral prefrontal, and auditory cortices, using magnetic resonance spectroscopy. STUDY RESULTS We found a negative relationship between prior-overweighting and glutamate levels in the insula that was not present for any of the other voxels or parameters. CONCLUSIONS Through computational psychiatry, we bridge a pathophysiological theory of psychosis (glutamate hypofunction) with a cognitive model of hallucinations (prior-overweighting) with implications for the development of new treatments for hallucinations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Pantelis Leptourgos
- Department of Psychiatry, Connecticut Mental Health Center, Yale University, New Haven, CT,USA
| | - Sonia Bansal
- Maryland Psychiatric Research Center, Department of Psychiatry, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Catonsville, MD,USA
| | - Jenna Dutterer
- Maryland Psychiatric Research Center, Department of Psychiatry, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Catonsville, MD,USA
| | - Adam Culbreth
- Maryland Psychiatric Research Center, Department of Psychiatry, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Catonsville, MD,USA
| | - Albert Powers
- Department of Psychiatry, Connecticut Mental Health Center, Yale University, New Haven, CT,USA
| | - Praveen Suthaharan
- Department of Psychiatry, Connecticut Mental Health Center, Yale University, New Haven, CT,USA
| | - Joshua Kenney
- Department of Psychiatry, Connecticut Mental Health Center, Yale University, New Haven, CT,USA
| | - Molly Erickson
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL,USA
| | - James Waltz
- Maryland Psychiatric Research Center, Department of Psychiatry, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Catonsville, MD,USA
| | - S Andrea Wijtenburg
- Maryland Psychiatric Research Center, Department of Psychiatry, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Catonsville, MD,USA
| | - Frank Gaston
- Maryland Psychiatric Research Center, Department of Psychiatry, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Catonsville, MD,USA
| | - Laura M Rowland
- Maryland Psychiatric Research Center, Department of Psychiatry, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Catonsville, MD,USA
| | - James Gold
- Maryland Psychiatric Research Center, Department of Psychiatry, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Catonsville, MD,USA
| | - Philip Corlett
- To whom correspondence should be addressed; 34 Park Street, New Haven, CT 06511, USA; tel: 203-974-7866, fax: 203 974 7866, e-mail:
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