scholarly journals Susceptibility to auditory hallucinations is associated with spontaneous but not directed modulation of top-down expectations for speech.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ben Alderson-Day ◽  
Jamie A. Moffatt ◽  
Cesar Lima ◽  
Saloni Krishnan ◽  
Charles Fernyhough ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Prior Knowledge ◽  
Sine Wave ◽  
Predictive Processing ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Hearing Voices ◽  
Auditory Verbal Hallucinations ◽  
Speech Stimuli ◽  
Original Language ◽  
Before And After

Auditory verbal hallucinations (AVH) – or hearing voices – occur in clinical and non-clinical populations, but their mechanisms remain unclear. Predictive processing models of psychosis have proposed that hallucinations arise from an over-weighting of prior expectations in perception. It is unknown, however, whether this reflects i) a sensitivity to explicit modulation of prior knowledge, or ii) a pre-existing tendency to spontaneously use such knowledge more in ambiguous contexts. Four experiments were conducted to examine this question in healthy participants listening to ambiguous speech stimuli. In experiments 1 (n = 60) and 2 (n = 60), participants discriminated intelligible and unintelligible sine-wave speech (SWS) before and after exposure to the original language templates (i.e., a modulation of expectation). No relationship was observed between top-down modulation and two common measures of hallucination-proneness. Experiment 3 (n = 99) confirmed this pattern with a different stimulus – sine-vocoded speech (SVS) – that was designed to minimise ceiling effects in discrimination and more closely model previous top-down effects reported in psychosis. In Experiment 4 (n = 135), participants were exposed to SVS without prior knowledge that it contained speech (i.e., naïve listening). AVH-proneness significantly predicted spontaneous pre-exposure identification of speech, but was unrelated to performance on a subsequent discrimination task, post-exposure. Altogether, these findings support a pre-existing tendency to spontaneously draw upon prior knowledge in healthy people prone to AVH, rather than a sensitivity to temporary modulations of expectation. We propose a model of clinical and non-clinical hallucinations, across auditory and visual modalities, with testable predictions for future research.

Priors and Prejudice: How prior knowledge shapes intergroup perception

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hugh McGovern ◽  
Marte Otten
Keyword(s):  
Social Psychology ◽  
Prior Knowledge ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Social Neuroscience ◽  
Intergroup Bias ◽  
Predictive Processing ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Intergroup Perception ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Processing Framework

Bayesian processing has become a popular framework by which to understand cognitive processes. However, relatively little has been done to understand how Bayesian processing in the brain can be applied to understanding intergroup cognition. We assess how categorization and evaluation processes unfold based on priors about the ethnic outgroup being perceived. We then consider how the precision of prior knowledge about groups differentially influence perception depending on how the information about that group was learned affects the way in which it is recalled. Finally, we evaluate the mechanisms of how humans learn information about other ethnic groups and assess how the method of learning influences future intergroup perception. We suggest that a predictive processing framework for assessing prejudice could help accounting for seemingly disparate findings on intergroup bias from social neuroscience, social psychology, and evolutionary psychology. Such an integration has important implications for future research on prejudice at the interpersonal, intergroup, and societal levels.

Using Concept Maps to Enhance Students' Prior Knowledge in Complex Learning

2010 ◽  
pp. 163-181 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Z. Zheng ◽  
Laura B. Dahl
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Study ◽  
Prior Knowledge ◽  
Concept Mapping ◽  
Concept Maps ◽  
Cognitive Styles ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Instructional Tool ◽  
Cognitive Tool ◽  
New Learning ◽  
Before And After

As an instructional tool, concept map has been widely used to teach complex subjects in schools. Research suggests that concept mapping can help bridge learners’ prior knowledge with new learning, reduce the cognitive load involved in learning and improve comprehension, content retention, and knowledge transfer. Existing literature focuses on cognitive features, cognitive styles and differences between instructor provided and student generated concepts. However, little is known about the effects of concept maps as a cognitive tool to influence learners’ learning, specifically before and after the learning takes place. This chapter offers a discussion of general research in concept mapping and theories that support such instruction. Finally, an empirical study is presented with suggestions for future research in concept mapping.

scholarly journals The auditory brain in action: Intention determines predictive processing in the auditory system—A review of current paradigms and findings

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Betina Korka ◽  
Andreas Widmann ◽  
Florian Waszak ◽  
Álvaro Darriba ◽  
Erich Schröger
Keyword(s):  
Auditory Processing ◽  
Predictive Coding ◽  
Predictive Processing ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Event Representation ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Ideomotor Theory ◽  
System A ◽  
Brain Responses ◽  
Action Intention

AbstractAccording to the ideomotor theory, action may serve to produce desired sensory outcomes. Perception has been widely described in terms of sensory predictions arising due to top-down input from higher order cortical areas. Here, we demonstrate that the action intention results in reliable top-down predictions that modulate the auditory brain responses. We bring together several lines of research, including sensory attenuation, active oddball, and action-related omission studies: Together, the results suggest that the intention-based predictions modulate several steps in the sound processing hierarchy, from preattentive to evaluation-related processes, also when controlling for additional prediction sources (i.e., sound regularity). We propose an integrative theoretical framework—the extended auditory event representation system (AERS), a model compatible with the ideomotor theory, theory of event coding, and predictive coding. Initially introduced to describe regularity-based auditory predictions, we argue that the extended AERS explains the effects of action intention on auditory processing while additionally allowing studying the differences and commonalities between intention- and regularity-based predictions—we thus believe that this framework could guide future research on action and perception.

Introducing the White Noise task in childhood: associations between speech illusions and psychosis vulnerability

2016 ◽  
Vol 46 (13) ◽  
pp. 2731-2740 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. K. Rimvall ◽  
L. Clemmensen ◽  
A. Munkholm ◽  
C. U. Rask ◽  
J. T. Larsen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Family History ◽  
Mental Disorders ◽  
Negative Affect ◽  
White Noise ◽  
Sensory Input ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Auditory Verbal Hallucinations ◽  
Speech Stimuli ◽  
History Of

BackgroundAuditory verbal hallucinations (AVH) are common during development and may arise due to dysregulation in top-down processing of sensory input. This study was designed to examine the frequency and correlates of speech illusions measured using the White Noise (WN) task in children from the general population. Associations between speech illusions and putative risk factors for psychotic disorder and negative affect were examined.MethodA total of 1486 children aged 11–12 years of the Copenhagen Child Cohort 2000 were examined with the WN task. Psychotic experiences and negative affect were determined using the Kiddie-SADS-PL. Register data described family history of mental disorders. Exaggerated Theory of Mind functioning (hyper-ToM) was measured by the ToM Storybook Frederik.ResultsA total of 145 (10%) children experienced speech illusions (hearing speech in the absence of speech stimuli), of which 102 (70%) experienced illusions perceived by the child as positive or negative (affectively salient). Experiencing hallucinations during the last month was associated with affectively salient speech illusions in the WN task [general cognitive ability: adjusted odds ratio (aOR) 2.01, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.03–3.93]. Negative affect, both last month and lifetime, was also associated with affectively salient speech illusions (aOR 2.01, 95% CI 1.05–3.83 and aOR 1.79, 95% CI 1.11–2.89, respectively). Speech illusions were not associated with delusions, hyper-ToM or family history of mental disorders.ConclusionsSpeech illusions were elicited in typically developing children in a WN-test paradigm, and point to an affective pathway to AVH mediated by dysregulation in top-down processing of sensory input.

scholarly journals Increased weighting on prior knowledge in Lewy body-associated visual hallucinations

2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Angeliki Zarkali ◽  
Rick A Adams ◽  
Stamatios Psarras ◽  
Louise-Ann Leyland ◽  
Geraint Rees ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Prior Knowledge ◽  
Lewy Body ◽  
Treatment Options ◽  
Lewy Body Disease ◽  
Visual Hallucinations ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Sensory Evidence ◽  
Relative Weighting ◽  
Sensory Noise

Abstract Hallucinations are a common and distressing feature of many psychiatric and neurodegenerative conditions. In Lewy body disease, visual hallucinations are a defining feature, associated with worse outcomes; yet their mechanisms remain unclear and treatment options are limited. Here, we show that hallucinations in Lewy body disease are associated with altered integration of top-down predictions with incoming sensory evidence, specifically with an increased relative weighting of prior knowledge. We tested 37 individuals with Lewy body disease, 17 habitual hallucinators and 20 without hallucinations, and 20 age-matched healthy individuals. We employed an image-based learning paradigm to test whether people with Lewy body disease and visual hallucinations show higher dependence on prior knowledge. We used two-tone images that are difficult to disambiguate without any prior information but generate a strong percept when information is provided. We measured discrimination sensitivity before and after this information was provided. We observed that in people with Lewy body disease who experience hallucinations, there was greater improvement in discrimination sensitivity after information was provided, compared to non-hallucinators and controls. This suggests that people with Lewy body disease and hallucinations place higher relative weighting on prior knowledge than those who do not hallucinate. Importantly, increased severity of visual hallucinations was associated with an increased effect of prior knowledge. Together these findings suggest that visual hallucinations in Lewy body disease are linked to a shift towards top-down influences on perception and away from sensory evidence, perhaps due to an increase in sensory noise. This provides important mechanistic insights to how hallucinations develop in Lewy body disease, with potential for revealing new therapeutic targets.

scholarly journals Inhibition in selective attention

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dirk van Moorselaar ◽  
Heleen Slagter
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Prior Experience ◽  
Predictive Processing ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Distractor Inhibition ◽  
Active Representation ◽  
Growing Body ◽  
Outstanding Question ◽  
The Brain

Our ability to focus on goal-relevant aspects of the environment is critically dependent on our ability to ignore or inhibit distracting information. One perspective is that distractor inhibition is under similar voluntary control as attentional facilitation of target processing. However, a rapidly growing body of research shows that distractor inhibition often relies on prior experience with the distracting information or other mechanisms that need not rely on active representation in working memory. Yet, how and when these different forms of inhibition are neurally implemented remains largely unclear. Here, we review findings from recent behavioral and neuroimaging studies to address this outstanding question. We specifically explore how experience with distracting information may change the processing of that information in the context of current predictive processing views of perception: by modulating a distractor’s representation already in anticipation of the distractor, or after integration of top-down and bottom-up sensory signals. We also outline directions for future research necessary to enhance our understanding of how the brain filters out distracting information.

Hear Today, Not gone Tomorrow? An Exploratory Longitudinal Study of Auditory Verbal Hallucinations (Hearing Voices)

2013 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 117-123 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicky Hartigan ◽  
Simon McCarthy-Jones ◽  
Mark Hayward
Keyword(s):  
Exploratory Study ◽  
Effect Sizes ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Specific Intervention ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Change Over Time ◽  
Hearing Voices ◽  
Auditory Verbal Hallucinations ◽  
Longitudinal Examination ◽  
Over Time

Background: Despite an increasing volume of cross-sectional work on auditory verbal hallucinations (hearing voices), there remains a paucity of work on how the experience may change over time. Aims: The first aim of this study was to attempt replication of a previous finding that beliefs about voices are enduring and stable, irrespective of changes in the severity of voices, and do not change without a specific intervention. The second aim was to examine whether voice-hearers’ interrelations with their voices change over time, without a specific intervention. Method: A 12-month longitudinal examination of these aspects of voices was undertaken with hearers in routine clinical treatment (N = 18). Results: We found beliefs about voices’ omnipotence and malevolence were stable over a 12-month period, as were styles of interrelating between voice and hearer, despite trends towards reductions in voice-related distress and disruption. However, there was a trend for beliefs about the benevolence of voices to decrease over time. Conclusions: Styles of interrelating between voice and hearer appear relatively stable and enduring, as are beliefs about the voices’ malevolent intent and power. Although there was some evidence that beliefs about benevolence may reduce over time, the reasons for this were not clear. Our exploratory study was limited by only being powered to detect large effect sizes. Implications for clinical practice and future research are discussed.

scholarly journals Neural activity precedes conscious awareness of being in or out of a transient hallucinatory state

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenneth Hugdahl ◽  
Alexander R. Craven ◽  
Erik Johnsen ◽  
Lars Ersland ◽  
Drozdstoy Stoyanov ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Neural Activity ◽  
Button Press ◽  
Conscious Awareness ◽  
Response Button ◽  
Hearing Voices ◽  
Auditory Verbal Hallucinations ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Neurological Patients ◽  
Time Courses ◽  
The Mind

SummaryAuditory verbal hallucinations, or “hearing voices”, is a remarkable state of the mind, occurring in psychiatric and neurological patients, and in a significant minority of the general population. An unexplained characteristic of this phenomenon is that it transiently fluctuates, with coming and going of episodes with time. We monitored neural activity with BOLD-fMRI second-by-second before and after participants indicated the start and end of a transient hallucinatory episode during the scanning session by pressing a response-button. We show that a region in the ventro-medial frontal cortex is activated in advance of conscious awareness of going in or out of a transient hallucinatory state. There was an increase in activity initiated a few seconds before the button-press for onsets, and a corresponding decrease in activity initiated a few seconds before the button-press for offsets. We identified the time between onset and offset button-presses, extracted the corresponding BOLD time-courses from nominated regions-of-interest, and analyzed changes in the signal from 10 seconds before to 15 seconds after the response-button was pressed, which identified onset and offset events. We suggest that this brain region act as a switch to turn on and off a hallucinatory episode. The results may have implications for new interventions for intractable hallucinations.

scholarly journals Reconciling competing mechanisms posited to underlie auditory verbal hallucinations

2020 ◽  
Vol 376 (1817) ◽  
pp. 20190702 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katharine N. Thakkar ◽  
Daniel H. Mathalon ◽  
Judith M. Ford
Keyword(s):  
Sensory Stimulation ◽  
Mental Illnesses ◽  
Sense Of Agency ◽  
Predictive Processing ◽  
Action Perception ◽  
External Stimulation ◽  
Hearing Voices ◽  
Auditory Verbal Hallucinations ◽  
Sensory Data ◽  
Past Experiences

Perception is not the passive registration of incoming sensory data. Rather, it involves some analysis by synthesis, based on past experiences and context. One adaptive consequence of this arrangement is imagination—the ability to richly simulate sensory experiences, interrogate and manipulate those simulations, in service of action and decision making. In this paper, we will discuss one possible cost of this adaptation, namely hallucinations—perceptions without sensory stimulation, which characterize serious mental illnesses like schizophrenia, but which also occur in neurological illnesses, and—crucially for the present piece—are common also in the non-treatment-seeking population. We will draw upon a framework for imagination that distinguishes voluntary from non-voluntary experiences and explore the extent to which the varieties and features of hallucinations map onto this distinction, with a focus on auditory-verbal hallucinations (AVHs)—colloquially, hearing voices. We will propose that sense of agency for the act of imagining is key to meaningfully dissecting different forms and features of AVHs, and we will outline the neural, cognitive and phenomenological sequelae of this sense. We will conclude that a compelling unifying framework for action, perception and belief—predictive processing—can incorporate observations regarding sense of agency, imagination and hallucination. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Offline perception: voluntary and spontaneous perceptual experiences without matching external stimulation’.

Influences of Stress on Interactions with Decision Support

2020 ◽  
Vol 64 (1) ◽  
pp. 1886-1890
Author(s):  
Kylie Litaker ◽  
Christopher B. Mayhorn
Keyword(s):  
Decision Support ◽  
Information Source ◽  
Negative Influence ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Physiological Measures ◽  
Task Motivation ◽  
Situational Stress ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Scanning Task ◽  
Source Of Information

People regularly interact with automation to make decisions. Research shows that reliance on recommendations can depend on user trust in the decision support system (DSS), the source of information (i.e. human or automation), and situational stress. This study explored how information source and stress affect trust and reliance on a DSS used in a baggage scanning task. A preliminary sample of sixty-one participants were given descriptions for a DSS and reported trust before and after interaction. The DSS gave explicit recommendations when activated and participants could choose to rely or reject the choice. Results revealed a bias towards self-reliance and a negative influence of stress on trust, particularly for participants receiving help from automation. Controlling for perceived reliability may have eliminated trust biases prior to interaction, while stress may have influenced trust during the task. Future research should address potential differences in task motivation and include physiological measures of stress.

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