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EEG resting state alpha dynamics predict an individual's vulnerability to auditory hallucinations.
H Honcamp1, S X Duggirala1,2, J Rodiño Climent3
1Department of Neuropsychology and Psychopharmacology, Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience, Maastricht University, Universiteitssingel 40, 6229 ER Maastricht, The Netherlands.
Cognitive Neurodynamics
|November 18, 2024
Summary
Resting-state alpha brain activity dynamics predict auditory hallucination proneness. Individuals more vulnerable to auditory hallucinations spent more time in a specific brain state characterized by somatosensory and auditory network activation.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Cognitive Neuroscience
- Psychiatry
Background:
- Resting-state (RS) brain activity shows spontaneous fluctuations between functional states, involving synchronized patterns in distributed brain networks.
- Temporal dynamics of these network signatures link to individual variations in brain activity, connectivity, mental states, cognitive functions, and predict vulnerability to psychiatric/neurological disorders.
- Specifically, RS alpha fluctuations influence perception, attention, and cognitive control, potentially indicating neural correlates of sensory distortion vulnerability and hallucination proneness.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the relationship between task-free alpha (8-12 Hz) brain activity dynamics and vulnerability to hallucinations.
- To identify specific resting-state brain states and their temporal dynamics associated with hallucination proneness (HP).
Main Methods:
- Recorded 5-minute resting-state electroencephalography (EEG) from 33 non-clinical individuals with varying hallucination proneness.
- Employed a dynamic brain state allocation method to identify recurrent alpha states, their spatiotemporal dynamics, and active brain areas via source reconstruction.
Main Results:
- Identified five recurrent alpha states based on dynamic brain activity.
- The temporal dynamics of a specific state, involving activation in somatosensory, auditory, and posterior default-mode network areas, predicted auditory and auditory-verbal hallucination proneness.
- Individuals with higher auditory hallucination vulnerability spent more time in this identified state, while it did not predict general HP.
Conclusions:
- Altered resting-state alpha dynamics may serve as a neural marker for increased vulnerability to auditory hallucinations.
- The temporal dynamics of spontaneous alpha activity could reflect individual differences in attention to internal sensory events and altered auditory perceptual sensitivity.
