Behavioral and Brain Sciences

Table of Contents - 2004 - Volume 27, Issue 06  


Short Communication

Auditory hallucinations, network connectivity, and schizophrenia

Ralph E. Hoffman a1, Maxine Varanko a1, Thomas H. McGlashan a1 and Michelle Hampson a2
a1 Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, Yale-New Haven Psychiatric Hospital, New Haven, CT 06519 ralph.hoffman@yale.edu maxine.varnako@yale.edu thomas.mcglashan@yale.edu
a2 Department of Diagnostic Radiology, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven CT 06520-8043 michelle.hampson@yale.edu

Abstract

Multidisciplinary studies indicate that auditory hallucinations may arise from speech perception neurocircuitry without disrupted theory of mind capacities. Computer simulations of excessive pruning in speech perception neural networks provide a model for these hallucinations and demonstrate that connectivity reductions just below a “psychotogenic threshold” enhance information processing. These data suggest a process whereby vulnerability to schizophrenia is maintained in the human population despite reproductive disadvantages of this illness.