Comparing Primary Voice-Hearers with and without Hallucinations in Other Sensory Modalities

2021 ◽  
pp. 214-220
Author(s):  
Wei Lin Toh ◽  
Neil Thomas ◽  
Susan L. Rossell

There has been burgeoning interest in studying hallucinations in psychosis occurring across multiple sensory modalities. The current study aimed to characterize the auditory hallucination and delusion profiles in patients with auditory hallucinations only versus those with multisensory hallucinations. Participants with psychosis were partitioned into groups with voices only (AVH; <i>n</i> = 50) versus voices plus hallucinations in at least one other sensory modality (AVH+; <i>n</i> = 50), based on their responses on the Scale for the Assessment of Positive Symptoms (SAPS). Basic demographic and clinical information was collected, and the Questionnaire for Psychotic Experiences (QPE) was used to assess psychosis phenomenology. Relative to the AVH group, greater compliance to perceived commands, auditory illusions, and sensed presences was significantly elevated in the AVH+ group. The latter group also had greater levels of delusion-related distress and functional impairment and was more likely to endorse delusions of reference and misidentification. This preliminary study uncovered important phenomenological differences in those with multisensory hallucinations. Future hallucination research extending beyond the auditory modality is needed.

1989 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 267-282 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Fowler ◽  
Stephen Morley

Five patients suffering from chronic and distressing psychotic symptoms were treated with a cognitive-behavioural approach designed to modify their beliefs that their auditory hallucinations were real, and to enhance their ability to control psychotic experiences. Four of the patients reported an increase in their ability to control hallucinations, but only one of these also reported a decreased frequency of hallucinating and a reduced belief in the reality of hallucinations. The discussion focusses on the implications for future interventions in this area.


2021 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hiroshi Yoshimatsu ◽  
Yuko Yotsumoto

We constantly integrate multiple types of information from different sensory modalities. Generally, such integration is influenced by the modality that we attend to. However, for duration perception, it has been shown that when duration information from visual and auditory modalities is integrated, the perceived duration of the visual stimulus leaned toward the duration of the auditory stimulus, irrespective of which modality was attended. In these studies, auditory dominance was assessed using visual and auditory stimuli with different durations whose timing of onset and offset would affect perception. In the present study, we aimed to investigate the effect of attention on duration integration using visual and auditory stimuli of the same duration. Since the duration of a visual flicker and auditory flutter tends to be perceived as longer than and shorter than its physical duration, respectively, we used the 10 Hz visual flicker and auditory flutter with the same onset and offset timings but different perceived durations. The participants were asked to attend either visual, auditory, or both modalities. Contrary to the attention-independent auditory dominance reported in previous studies, we found that the perceived duration of the simultaneous flicker and flutter presentation depended on which modality the participants attended. To further investigate the process of duration integration of the two modalities, we applied Bayesian hierarchical modeling, which enabled us to define a flexible model in which the multisensory duration is represented by the weighted average of each sensory modality. In addition, to examine whether auditory dominance results from the higher reliability of auditory stimuli, we applied another models to consider the stimulus reliability. These behavioral and modeling results suggest the following: (1) the perceived duration of visual and auditory stimuli is influenced by which modality the participants attended to when we control for the confounding effect of onset–offset timing of stimuli, and (2) the increase of the weight by attention affects the duration integration, even when the effect of stimulus reliability is controlled. Our models can be extended to investigate the neural basis and effects of other sensory modalities in duration integration.


Author(s):  
Aaron Crowson ◽  
Zachary H. Pugh ◽  
Michael Wilkinson ◽  
Christopher B. Mayhorn

The development of head-mounted display virtual reality systems (e.g., Oculus Rift, HTC Vive) has resulted in an increasing need to represent the physical world while immersed in the virtual. Current research has focused on representing static objects in the physical room, but there has been little research into notifying VR users of changes in the environment. This study investigates how different sensory modalities affect noticeability and comprehension of notifications designed to alert head-mounted display users when a person enters his/her area of use. In addition, this study investigates how the use of an orientation type notification aids in perception of alerts that manifest outside a virtual reality users’ visual field. Results of a survey indicated that participants perceived the auditory modality as more effective regardless of notification type. An experiment corroborated these findings for the person notifications; however, the visual modality was in practice more effective for orientation notifications.


1981 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 351-357 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paula Tallal ◽  
Rachel Stark ◽  
Clayton Kallman ◽  
David Mellits

A battery of nonverbal perceptual and memory tests were given to 35 language-impaired (LI) and 38 control subjects. Three modalities of tests were given: auditory, visual, and cross-modal (auditory and visual). The purpose was to reexamine some nonverbal perceptual and memory abilities of LI children as a function of age and modality of stimulation. Results failed to replicate previous findings of a temporal processing deficit that is specific to the auditory modality in LI children. The LI group made significantly more errors than did controls regardless of modality of stimulation when 2-item sequences were presented rapidly, or when more than two stimuli were presented in series. However, further analyses resolved this apparent conflict between the present and earlier studies by demonstrating that age is an important variable underlying modality specificity of perceptual performance in LI children. Whereas younger LI children were equally impaired when responding to stimuli presented rapidly to the auditory and visual modality, older LI subjects made nearly twice as many errors responding to rapidly presented auditory rather than visual stimuli. This developmental difference did not occur for the control group.


2016 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 21-31 ◽  
Author(s):  
O.B. Bogdashina

Synaesthesia — a phenomenon of perception, when stimulation of one sensory modality triggers a perception in one or more other sensory modalities. Synaesthesia is not uniform and can manifest itself in different ways. As the sensations and their interpretation vary in different periods of time, it makes it hard to study this phenom¬enon. The article presents the classification of different forms of synaesthesia, including sensory and cognitive; and bimodal and multimodal synaesthesia. Some synaesthetes have several forms and variants of synaesthesia, while others – just one form of it. Although synaesthesia is not specific to autism spectrum disorders, it is quite common among autistic individuals. The article deals with the most common forms of synaesthesia in autism, advantages and problems of synesthetic perception in children with autism spectrum disorders, and provides some advice to parents how to recognise synaesthesia in children with autism.


2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandre Montalvo ◽  
Eryco Azevedo ◽  
Alexandre de Mendonça

Abstract Background Musical hallucinations are a particular type of auditory hallucination in which the patient perceives instrumental music, musical sounds, or songs. Musical hallucinations are associated with acquired hearing loss, particularly within the elderly. Under conditions of reduced auditory sensory input, perception-bearing circuits are disinhibited and perceptual traces released, implying an interaction between peripheral sensory deficits and central factors related to brain dysfunction. Case presentation A 71-year-old Caucasian man with hearing loss complained of memory difficulties and resting tremor of the right upper limb in the previous 2 years. He already had difficulties in instrumental activities of daily life. Neurological examination showed Parkinsonian signs and hypoacusia. Neuropsychological examination identified deficits in executive functions and memory tests. Brain computerized tomography and nuclear magnetic resonance scans showed mild cortical and subcortical atrophy. The clinical diagnosis of possible dementia with Lewy bodies was established. Five years later, the patient began complaining of musical hallucinations. There had been no previous change in medication. An otorhinolaryngologist diagnosed age-related hearing loss and prescribed bilateral hearing aids. After using the hearing aids, the patient did not hear the songs any longer, only some tinnitus, described as a whistle. However, at the same time, the patient started experiencing visual hallucinations he never had before. Discussion To our knowledge, the immediate shift of hallucinations from one sensory modality to another sensory modality when perception is improved has not been previously described. This report emphasizes the interaction between brain pathology and sensory deficits for the genesis of hallucinations, and reinforces the theory that attention and control networks must couple properly to the default mode network, as well as integrate and select adequately peripheral signals to the somatosensory cortices, in order to keep a clear state of mind. Conclusion The clinician should bear in mind and let the patient know that improving one sensory modality to ameliorate hallucinations may sometimes paradoxically lead to hallucinations in a different sensory modality.


Author(s):  
Drew McRacken ◽  
Maddie Dyson ◽  
Kevin Hu

Over the past few decades, there has been a significant number of reports that suggested that reaction times for different sensory modalities were different – e.g., that visual reaction time was slower than tactile reaction time. A recent report by Holden and colleagues stated that (1) there has been a significant historic upward drift in reaction times reported in the literature, (2) that this drift or degradation in reaction times could be accounted for by inaccuracies in the methods used and (3) that these inaccurate methods led to inaccurate reporting of differences between visual and tactile based reaction time testing.  The Holden study utilized robotics (i.e., no human factors) to test visual and tactile reaction time methods but did not assess how individuals would perform on different sensory modalities.  This study utilized three different sensory modalities: visual, auditory, and tactile, to test reaction time. By changing the way in which the subjects were prompted and measuring subsequent reaction time, the impact of sensory modality could be analyzed. Reaction time testing for two sensory modalities, auditory and visual, were administered through an Arduino Uno microcontroller device, while tactile-based reaction time testing was administered with the Brain Gauge. A range of stimulus intensities was delivered for the reaction times delivered by each sensory modality. The average reaction time and reaction time variability was assessed and a trend could be identified for the reaction time measurements of each of the sensory modalities. Switching the sensory modality did not result in a difference in reaction time and it was concluded that this was due to the implementation of accurate circuitry used to deliver each test. Increasing stimulus intensity for each sensory modality resulted in faster reaction times. The results of this study confirm the findings of Holden and colleagues and contradict the results reported in countless studies that conclude that (1) reaction times are historically slower now than they were 50 years ago and (2) that there are differences in reaction times for different sensory modalities (vision, hearing, tactile). The implications of this are that utilization of accurate reaction time methods could have a significant impact on clinical outcomes and that many methods in current clinical use are basically perpetuating poor methods and wasting time and money of countless subjects or patients.


2019 ◽  
Vol 45 (5) ◽  
pp. 1001-1011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven J Luck ◽  
Carly J Leonard ◽  
Britta Hahn ◽  
James M Gold

Abstract Recent evidence suggests that schizophrenia involves hyperfocusing, an unusually narrow but intense focusing of processing resources. This appears to contradict the classic idea that schizophrenia involves an impairment in the ability to focus on relevant information and filter irrelevant information. Here, we review one set of studies suggesting that attentional filtering is impaired in people with schizophrenia and another set of studies suggesting that attentional filtering is unimpaired or even enhanced in these individuals. Considerable evidence supports both conclusions, and we propose 3 potential ways of reconciling the conflicting evidence. First, impaired attentional filtering may occur primarily during periods of active psychosis, with hyperfocusing being a part of the broad pattern of cognitive impairment that persists independent of the level of positive symptoms. Second, schizophrenia may involve hyperfocusing in the visual modality and impaired attentional filtering in the auditory modality. Third, attention may be directed toward irrelevant inputs as a result of impaired executive control, and hyperfocusing on those inputs may be functionally equivalent to a failure of attentional filtering. Given the widespread clinical observations and first-person reports of impaired attentional filtering in schizophrenia, it will be important for future research to test these possibilities.


2020 ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Tais S. Moriyama ◽  
Marjan Drukker ◽  
Sinan Guloksuz ◽  
Magreet ten Have ◽  
Ron de Graaf ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Although hallucinations have been studied in terms of prevalence and its associations with psychopathology and functional impairment, very little is known about sensory modalities other than auditory (i.e. haptic, visual and olfactory), as well the incidence of hallucinations, factors predicting incidence and subsequent course. Methods We examined the incidence, course and risk factors of hallucinatory experiences across different modalities in two unique prospective general population cohorts in the same country using similar methodology and with three interview waves, one over the period 1996–1999 (NEMESIS) and one over the period 2007–2015 (NEMESIS-2). Results In NEMESIS-2, the yearly incidence of self-reported visual hallucinations was highest (0.33%), followed by haptic hallucinations (0.31%), auditory hallucinations (0.26%) and olfactory hallucinations (0.23%). Rates in NEMESIS-1 were similar (respectively: 0.35%, 0.26%, 0.23%, 0.22%). The incidence of clinician-confirmed hallucinations was approximately 60% of the self-reported rate. The persistence rate of incident hallucinations was around 20–30%, increasing to 40–50% for prevalent hallucinations. Incident hallucinations in one modality were very strongly associated with occurrence in another modality (median OR = 59) and all modalities were strongly associated with delusional ideation (median OR = 21). Modalities were approximately equally strongly associated with the presence of any mental disorder (median OR = 4), functioning, indicators of help-seeking and established environmental risk factors for psychotic disorder. Conclusions Hallucinations across different modalities are a clinically relevant feature of non-psychotic disorders and need to be studied in relation to each other and in relation to delusional ideation, as all appear to have a common underlying mechanism.


2019 ◽  
Vol 62 ◽  
pp. 50-57
Author(s):  
Andrew Stickley ◽  
Hans Oh ◽  
Tomiki Sumiyoshi ◽  
Zui Narita ◽  
Jordan E. DeVylder ◽  
...  

Abstract Background: Perceived discrimination has been linked to psychotic experiences (PEs). However, as yet, information is lacking on the relationship between different forms of discrimination and PEs. This study examined this association in the English general population. Methods: Nationally representative, cross-sectional data were analyzed from 7363 adults aged 16 and above that came from the Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey, 2007. Self-reported information was obtained on six forms of discrimination (ethnicity, sex, religious beliefs, age, physical health problems/disability, sexual orientation), while PEs were assessed with the Psychosis Screening Questionnaire (PSQ). Multivariable logistic regression analysis was used to assess associations. Results: In a fully adjusted logistic regression analysis, any discrimination was significantly associated with PEs (odds ratio [OR]: 2.47, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.75–3.48). All individual forms of discrimination were significantly associated with PEs except sexual orientation. Multiple forms of discrimination were associated with higher odds for PEs in a monotonic fashion with those experiencing ≥ 3 forms of discrimination having over 5 times higher odds for any PE. In addition, experiencing any discrimination was associated with significantly increased odds for all individual forms of PE with ORs ranging from 2.16 (95%CI: 1.40–3.35) for strange experience to 3.36 (95%CI: 1.47–7.76) for auditory hallucination. Conclusion: Different forms of discrimination are associated with PEs in the general population. As discrimination is common at the societal level, this highlights the importance of public policy and evidence-based interventions to reduce discrimination and improve population mental health.


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