Schizophrenia

1 Pages 233 Words

The pathophysiological theories of auditory hallucinations have virtually been unknown until recently. These theories of auditory hallucinations “suggest that the production of auditory hallucinations in schizophrenia is associated with increased activity in a network of cortical areas specialized for language” (McGuire, PK, GMS Shah, and RM Murray; Lancet, v. 342, iss. 8873, pg 704; 1993). McGuire, Shah, and Murray conducted a famous study in which they studied 12 schizophrenic patients at various hospitals. Using single photon emission topography (SPET) they measured regional cerebral blood flow with “the aim of identifying brain areas that are especially active during auditory hallucinations” (McGuire, Shah, and Murray, pg 703). The results of their study were very interesting and made great leaps in the study of schizophrenia. They discovered that an area of the brain known as Broca’s area, which is the part of the brain known to be involved in speech production, expe!
rienced an increase of blood flow during auditory hallucinations. This is interesting because “since hallucinations usually involve understanding the ‘speech’ of others, you might expect more activity in Wernicke’s area, which involves language comprehension” (Barlow, David and Mark Durand; Abnormal Psychology: Brooks/Cole Publishing Company; Pacific Grove, 1999). This means that people who are hallucinating are probably not hearing the voices of others, but are listening to their own thoughts or their won voices and cannot recognize the difference....