Auditory hallucination

Auditory hallucination
Other namesParacusia
SpecialtyPsychiatry

An auditory hallucination, or paracusia,[1] is a form of hallucination that involves perceiving sounds without auditory stimulus. While experiencing an auditory hallucination, the affected person hears a sound or sounds that did not come from the natural environment.

A common form of auditory hallucination involves hearing one or more voices without a speaker present, known as an auditory verbal hallucination. This may be associated with psychotic disorders, most notably schizophrenia, and this phenomenon is often used to diagnose these conditions.[2] However, individuals without any psychiatric disease whatsoever may hear voices,[3] including those under the influence of mind-altering substances, such as cannabis, cocaine, amphetamines, and PCP.

There are three main categories into which the hearing of talking voices often fall: a person hearing a voice speak one's thoughts, a person hearing one or more voices arguing, or a person hearing a voice narrating their own actions.[4] These three categories do not account for all types of auditory hallucinations.

Hallucinations of music also occur. In these, people more often hear snippets of songs that they know, or the music they hear may be original. They may occur in mentally sound people and with no known cause.[5] Other types of auditory hallucinations include exploding head syndrome and musical ear syndrome. In the latter, people will hear music playing in their mind, usually songs they are familiar with. These hallucinations can be caused by: lesions on the brain stem (often resulting from a stroke), sleep disorders such as narcolepsy, tumors, encephalitis, or abscesses.[6] This should be distinguished from the commonly experienced phenomenon of earworms, memorable music that persists in one's mind. Reports have also mentioned that it is also possible to get musical hallucinations from listening to music for long periods of time.[7] Other causes include hearing loss and epileptic activity.[8]

In the past, the cause of auditory hallucinations was attributed to cognitive suppression by way of executive function failure of the frontoparietal sulcus. Newer research has found that they coincide with the left superior temporal gyrus, suggesting that they are better attributed to speech misrepresentations.[9] It is assumed through research that the neural pathways involved in normal speech perception and production, which are lateralized to the left temporal lobe, also underlie auditory hallucinations.[9] Auditory hallucinations correspond with spontaneous neural activity of the left temporal lobe, and the subsequent primary auditory cortex. The perception of auditory hallucinations corresponds to the experience of actual external hearing, despite the absence of any sound itself.[10]

  1. ^ "Paracusia". Medical dictionary.
  2. ^ Yuhas D (March 2013). "Throughout History, Defining Schizophrenia Has Remained A challenge". Scientific American Mind (March 2013). Retrieved 2 March 2013.
  3. ^ Thompson A (September 15, 2006). "Hearing Voices: Some People Like It". LiveScience.com. Archived from the original on 2 November 2006. Retrieved 2014-02-01.
  4. ^ Semple D (2005). Oxford Hand Book of Psychiatry. Oxford Press.
  5. ^ Deutsch D (2019). "Hallucinations of music and speech". Musical Illusions and Phantom Words: How Music and Speech Unlock Mysteries of the Brain. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780190206833. LCCN 2018051786.
  6. ^ "Rare Hallucinations Make Music In The Mind". ScienceDaily.com. August 9, 2000. Archived from the original on 5 December 2006. Retrieved 2006-12-31.
  7. ^ Young K (July 27, 2005). "IPod hallucinations face acid test". Vnunet.com. Archived from the original on 2007-12-20. Retrieved 2008-04-10.
  8. ^ Engmann B, Reuter M (April 2009). "Spontaneous perception of melodies – hallucination or epilepsy?". Nervenheilkunde. 28: 217–221. ISSN 0722-1541.
  9. ^ a b Hugdahl K, Løberg EM, Nygård M (May 2009). "Left temporal lobe structural and functional abnormality underlying auditory hallucinations in schizophrenia". Frontiers in Neuroscience. 3 (1): 34–45. doi:10.3389/neuro.01.001.2009. PMC 2695389. PMID 19753095.
  10. ^ Ikuta T, DeRosse P, Argyelan M, Karlsgodt KH, Kingsley PB, Szeszko PR, Malhotra AK (December 2015). "Subcortical modulation in auditory processing and auditory hallucinations". Behavioural Brain Research. 295: 78–81. doi:10.1016/j.bbr.2015.08.009. PMC 4641005. PMID 26275927.