A new study led by psychologists at UNSW Sydney has provided the clearest evidence so far that hearing voices in schizophrenia may stem from a breakdown in how the brain recognises its own inner speech, causing internally generated thoughts to be experienced as if they were coming from outside.
Published in Schizophrenia Bulletin, the research supports a 50-year theory that auditory hallucinations can occur when the brain fails to correctly predict and “tone down” its response to a person’s own inner voice.
