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The Neural Correlates of Inner Speech and Auditory Verbal Imagery in Schizophrenia: Relationship to Auditory Verbal Hallucinations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

P. K. McGuire ,
D. A. Silbersweig ,
I. Wright ,
R. M. Murray ,
R. S. J. Frackowiak  and
C. D. Frith
P. K. McGuire*
Affiliation:
Institute of Psychiatry and Wellcome Department of Cognitive Neurology, Institute of Neurology, London
D. A. Silbersweig
Affiliation:
Departments of Psychiatry & Neurology, Cornell Medical Centre, New York, USA
I. Wright
Affiliation:
Department of Psychological Medicine, Institute of Psychiatry
R. M. Murray
Affiliation:
Professor of Psychological Medicine, Institute of Psychiatry
R. S. J. Frackowiak
Affiliation:
Wellcome Department of Cognitive Neurology, Institute of Neurology, London
C. D. Frith
Affiliation:
Wellcome Department of Cognitive Neurology, Institute of Neurology, London
*
Dr P. K. McGuire, Department of Psychological Medicine, Institute of Psychiatry, London SE5 8AF
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Abstract

Background

Auditory verbal hallucinations are thought to arise from the disordered monitoring of inner speech (thinking in words). We tested the hypothesis that a predisposition to verbal auditory hallucinations would be associated with an abnormal pattern of brain activation during tasks which involved the generation and monitoring of inner speech.

Method

The neural correlates of tasks which engaged inner speech and auditory verbal imagery were examined using positron emission tomography in (a) schizophrenic patients with a strong predisposition to auditory verbal hallucinations (hallucinators), (b) schizophrenic patients with no history of hallucinations (nonhallucinators), and (c) normal controls.

Results

There were few between-group differences in activation during the inner speech task. However, when imagining sentences spoken in another person's voice, which entails the monitoring of inner speech, hallucinators showed reduced activation in the left middle temporal gyrus and the rostral supplementary motor area, regions which were strongly activated by both normal subjects and nonhallucinators (P<0.001). Conversely, when nonhallucinators imagined speech, they differed from both hallucinators and controls in showing reduced activation in the right parietal operculum.

Conclusions

A predisposition to verbal hallucinations in schizophrenia is associated with a failure to activate areas implicated in the normal monitoring of inner speech, whereas the absence of a history of hallucinations may be linked to reduced activation in an area concerned with verbal prosody.

Type
Papers
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 169 , Issue 2 , August 1996 , pp. 148 - 159
Copyright
Copyright © 1996 The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

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