The function of efference copy signals: implications for symptoms of schizophrenia

Efference copy signals are used to reduce cognitive load by decreasing sensory processing of reafferent information (those incoming sensory signals that are produced by an organism's own motor output). Attenuated sensory processing of self-generated afferents is seen across species and in multiple sensory systems involving many different neural structures and circuits including both cortical and subcortical structures with thalamic nuclei playing a particularly important role. It has been proposed that the failure to disambiguate self-induced from externally generated sensory input may cause some of the positive symptoms in schizophrenia such as auditory hallucinations and delusions of passivity. Here, we review the current data on the role of efference copy signals within different sensory modalities as well as the behavioral, structural and functional abnormalities in clinical groups that support this hypothesis.