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An Automated System for Sound Localization Testing in Hearing-Impaired Listeners
Published on: March 13, 2026
Locating voices in space: a perceptual model for auditory hallucinations?
1Sheffield Cognition and Neuroimaging Laboratory, Academic Department of Psychiatry, University of Sheffield, The Longley Centre, UK. m.d.hunter@shef.ac.uk
Cognitive Neuropsychiatry
|March 31, 2006
Summary
Auditory hallucinations feel external, like real sounds. This study models this "externality" using brain imaging, identifying the left planum temporale
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Neuroscience
- Psychiatry
- Auditory Perception
Background:
- Auditory hallucinations are often perceived as external, similar to real sounds, despite no external source.
- The "externality" of these hallucinations is crucial for clinical and neuroscientific understanding.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop an auditory-perceptual model of external auditory hallucinations.
- To investigate the neural mechanisms underlying the perception of externalized voices.
Main Methods:
- A selective literature review on auditory hallucination phenomenology and voice localization.
- Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in healthy subjects presenting speech in virtual acoustic space.
Main Results:
- The left planum temporale is key in perceiving real voices as external.
- Right-sided auditory stimuli evoke stronger responses in the dominant (left) auditory cortex.
- Spatial localization of voices is more accurate for right-sided stimuli.
Conclusions:
- The proposed model identifies brain systems involved in auditory hallucinations, particularly in schizophrenia.
- This model offers an alternative to "inner speech" or "internal monitoring" theories.
- Investigating the phenomenology of auditory hallucinations through this model can illuminate underlying mechanisms.
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