Exploring neural dynamics in self-voice processing and perception: Implications for hallucination proneness

Altered sensory feedback processing and attention control are assumed to contribute to auditory verbal hallucinations, which are experienced by the general population and patients with psychosis, implying a continuum of hallucination proneness (HP). However, the interaction of altered sensory feedback processing and attention control along this HP continuum remains unclear. We tested this interaction using electroencephalography while forty participants varying on HP, self-generated (via a button-press) and passively listened to their own voices. These voices were created by first recording each participant's neutral and angry voice and then morphing them to create final five types of voice stimuli differing in voice quality per participant (100 % neutral, 60-40 % neutral-angry, 50-50 % neutral-angry, 40-60 % neutral-angry, 100 % angry). Regardless of the voice quality, the N100 and P200 suppression effects decreased with increase in HP. This may indicate increased error awareness and attention allocation in high HP individuals for self-voice generation stemming from altered sensory feedback processing, and/or attentional control. The current findings suggest that alterations of the sensory feedback processing and/or attentional control in self-voice production are fundamental characteristics of the continuum of HP, regardless of the clinical status of voice hearers.